The History and Practice of Magic

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THE HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF MAGIC

VOLUME

I

The HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF Translated by JAMES KIRKUP and JULIAN SHAW Supplementary Articles by MIR BASHIR • MARGERY LAWRENCE and JULIAN SHAW Emendations and Notes by CHARLES R. CAMMELL LEWIS SPENCE . GERALD YORKE and EDWARD WHYBROW

New York

By PAUL

CHRISTIAN

Newly Translated from the French With Additional Material bv Modern Authorities Edited and Revised by

ROSS NICHOLS In Two Volumes

THE CITADEL PRESS

FOURTH PRINTING, NOVEMBER, 1969

Manufactured in the United States of America Published by Citadel Press, Inc. 222 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10003 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 63-21202

EDITOR’S NOTE

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"^HE method followed in this rendering of a work of some quarter-million words into English has been in the main straightforward translation, the first five books having been translated by James Kirkup and the two latter books, Six and Seven, by Julian Shaw. The taste however of French writing of 1870 is not that of the average English reader today, and certain small omissions, mostly of expressions which the modern reader might re­ gard as exaggerated and sentimental, are indicated by the use of points de suspension . . . Any substantial omission or substitution is indicated in a footnote and the reason given. Footnotes in the French original are given without alteration. Footnotes added by the present editor and his collaborators, to the number of 140, are distinguished by Ed. at the end of each. Material additional to the text is marked by italic head­ ings, as well as by signatory initials at the end of each article. In two cases, however, added material could not thus be distinguished since it was required as almost line-by-line interpretation, i.e. in the commentary upon the medieval herbalist remedies (p. 335) and in the interpretations of the meanings of dreams as given by S. Nicephorus of Constantinople (p. 377). Here a difference of type was adopted, with explanatory notes. As well as the historical and other editing by the general editor, substantial editorial additions have been made by those mentioned on the title page who have contributed to this work in the following ways: Mr. Lewis Spence has provided material for much of the editing of the chapters

on Celtic and fairy lore; Margery Lawrence has written an incorporated article on spiritualism; Dr. Charles R. Cammell has permitted quotation from his articles in the Atlantis Quarterly on the Faust legend; Mr. Mir Bashir, in addition to a section on Chirology or Cheiromancy, has contributed extensively to the interpretations of the dream material which goes under the name of S. Nicephorus of Constantinople; Julian Shaw, besides writing an article on Astrology 1952, has acted as general consultant on astro­ logical matters;. Mr. Edward Whybrow has provided the bulk of the modern glosses on the old herbal remedies and Mr. Gerald Yorke has made editorial suggestions generally as well as editing the more narrowly magical part of the work in detail. In addition to these title-page names, the help of the librarians of the Paris Biblioth£que Nationale and of the Arsenal library, of members of the staff of the British Museum, of Mr. John Hargrave (on Paracelsus), of the editor of Astrology for kind permission to reproduce the three twentieth century horoscopes used in Julian Shaw’s article and of Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton and the execu­ tor of the author for permission to reproduce part of E. Lucas Bridges’ The Uttermost Part of the Earth, must be thankfully acknowledged. To all these willing collaborators, without whom this English edition would have lacked certain distinctive and indeed essential elements, the general editor wishes to ex­ press his gratitude and appreciation for help enabling him to complete a laborious task in a comparatively brief period.

PAUL CHRISTIAN: A MEMOIR

EAN BAPTISTE or Christian Pitois, commonly known as Paul Christian but also as Dom Marie-Bernard and Charles (jJJ Moreau, was born in the Vosges district of France at Remiremont on 15 May 1811. His Christian names appear in the civil register of Remiremont as Jean Baptiste. It was intended by his family that he should become a priest, and he had a religious up­ bringing with the little Paris community of the Clercs de la Chapelle Royale. As a youth he went for a time in 1828 to a Trappist abbey to test his vocation; he had been much influenced by his devotional reading, especially by the Legend of the Fathers in the Desert, and there had been a family bereavement. Either he or the Trappists decided that his vocation was not genuine and he left after a short stay; but its influence remained with him for life. Here it was that he had assumed the name Marie-Bernard, and when later he came to write his Heroes of Christianity it was to a fictitious monk of this name that he attributed it, though he eventually had to admit his own authorship in the last volume. His son too bore the names Paul Marie Bernard. What the young man did, in the formative years from 17 to 26, is obscure. The articles on Christian in La Lumi&re refer to his fighting in Spain and to his leading a native rising in Dominica, then French, for the abolition of slavery, and these adventures presumably occurred then. He does not appear upon the literary scene until he had become the close friend of Charles Nodier, curator of the Paris Arsenal Library, through whom, as he narrates in the opening pages of the History of Magic, his interest in the occult was aroused. With him he published as his first work a joint series of three volumes. Historic Paris: Walks in the Streets of Paris, 1837-1840. Henceforth the pen of Paul Christian, as he now began usually to style himself, was rarely idle; he became a prolific journalist, editor and translator as well as author. He was a nephew of the publisher and bookseller Pitois-Levrault who soon published his nephew’s translation of the popular stories of Schmid, 1839,

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when his Studies of the Paris Revolution also appeared. And in the same year came a decisive event in his life when he was appointed Librarian at the Ministry of Public Education. In that year the Minister, the Comte de Salvandy, took an important step in rehabilitating the educational and literary life of France, severely disorganised during the troubles of fifty years, by recalling for redistribution all available spare and uncatalogued books. For this purpose he ordered the accumulation at the Ministry in Paris of the many duplicate books from the libraries in the provinces and of the books from the monasteries which had been seized when they were suppressed in 1790. Young Pitois was given the arduous task of sorting, after which the bulk of them was sent out again chiefly to new libraries. A job which even to a bibliophile might have seemed largely a wearisome piece of routine work was to him delightful because, as he says, of ‘the interesting discoveries I made daily’. He and Nodier pored over the books on super­ natural, magical and philosophic subjects, and the story of their joint adventures in discovery forms the framework of the intro­ ductory section of the History of Magic. It was these months that laid the foundation of Christian the occultist. In this congenial security and encouraged by friends, his real capacities began to expand. A bent towards historic studies led to the appearance of his two-volume History of the French Clergy in 1840; and his wide interests as a man of letters were shown in such writings as an introduction to a volume of Helvetius and a memoir on Ernest Hoffman. He began to contribute to learned and general journals. This peaceful literary life was pleasingly interrupted by the acceptance of a private secretaryship to Marshall Bugeaud, 1843— 1844, during his campaigns in Algeria and Morocco, where Pitois was wounded. Returning to France in 1845 he put his experience to good use in his Memoir of Marshall Bugeaud the Administrator in Algeria and Morocco, published the same year, and in his Account of the French Conquest and Rule in Morocco, 1846. Journalistic activities on a considerable scale seem to have followed, and led in 1851—1852 to his becoming editor-in-chief of the Moniteur du Soir. That this had not entirely absorbed his energies became apparent when next year, 1853, his substantial History of the Terror appeared. ‘Marie-Bernard’s’ account of the Cistercians came out with Christian’s avowed introduction and notes

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in 1853, and from then until 1857 were published the eight volumes of his massive Heroes of Christianity, mentioned above. His trans­ lation of MacPhcrson’s Ossian appeared in 1858; and in i860 devotional works, Marriage: the Angel of IVehrda and the Flowers of Heaven, were the precursors of a considerable little series of such manuals. His talent for story-telling had been apparent in many of his books, and in 1863 the thrilling Red Man of the Tuileries had a considerable vogue; so already had his Stories of the Marvellous from All Times and Lands [1844], whilst the favour of the court was apparent in the title of the Stories of French Valour Told to the Prince Imperial. He again turned to journalism in 1865—1866, directing the Moniteur Catholique. A comparative lull in Pitois' activities occurred for four years, at the end of which appeared in 1870 the present work, the full title of which ran: Histoire de la Magie, du Monde Surnaturel et de la Fatalite d travers les Temps el les Peuples. It will be seen from the above brief resume of some of the main products of a busy life that it was with a very full equipment of knowledge and with the practised pen of the successful journalist and author that Christian had undertaken his magnum opus. He had been steadily reading all the works on occultism that he could find since 1839 and he was now 59; he was an established historian, a writer of historical romances and the translator of the most ‘romantic’ of Celtic poets, whose equivocal status in England did not detract from his vogue abroad. His reputation as a writer of Catholic devotional works and the favour he enjoyed with the regime and with the Imperial household in particular certainly qualified his approach to his material in some ways. Whilst a mild anti-clerical strain and a strong anti-Masonic bias are apparent, careful genuflexions are made to Christianity throughout the work. More important, Christian would not include full particulars of black magic or its rituals; his book would contain strange and authentic matters, but nothing that might involve proscription or even loss of favour in a Catholic empire. The word magie has in fact a different connotation from the corresponding English word; it may be considered as the equivalent of ‘the mysteries’ as the phrase is used by writers on the classical period, and these would not necessarily contain any ‘black’ elements. From 1815 onwards nineteenth century France was influenced by occultism in many ways. During this period, as Enid Starkie has

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remarked ‘occult theories were, amongst certain writers, the same common coin that Freudian and Marxist theory is today amongst many who have never read a line from these two thinkers’. In England one may recall the Brownings' and Bulwer Lytton’s in­ terest in the occult. Across the channel, originating perhaps in the normal desire to compensate for lack of achievement in the real world by dreams of success in another, the lively intellects of de­ feated France seem to have indulged in supernatural speculations in reaction against the rationalists of the Revolution period. Paris became and has remained a happy hunting ground for astrologers, chiromants, fortune tellers et hoc genus omne, genuine and spurious, To the present day astrology, which to Christian was such a large part of la Magie, has a more serious following and is more scienti­ fically studied than in any other western country. In particular, the literature of the period bears in many directions the mark of this widespread prepossession. In 1840 Le Boys’ new translation of Swedenborg’s works was published and strongly influenced Baudelaire, whilst Joseph le Maistre’s and Lavater’s well-known works on magic further shaped his thoughts. Illuminist doctrine, as Viatte shows,1 formed a large element in the thought of Le Maistre and of Christian’s life-long friend Charles Nodier. A great deal of Victor Hugo’s philosophy was based on the Qabala of which good French versions existed. * The Parnassians were very much au fait with Buddhism and eventually quite as much with Burnouf’s translations of the Bhagavad Gita, Purana, Rig Veda and other Indian sacred texts. Gerard de Nerval appears to have had a considerable acquaintance with alchemy. The most striking example however of magic in the stricter sense having provided the very crucible of a poet’s genius is Arthur Rimbaud. At Charleville, a local official, Charles Bretagne, had interested him in and lent him occult and philosophical works. There may be a link with the Saint-Martin group—Louis de Saint-Martin [1743-1803] had been a prominent society intellectual, peripatetic in his life, a group of whose followers were at Lyon; he was known as ‘The Unknown Philosopher’ and his doctrines were redolent of Herschel’s astronomy, of Pasquales. Swedenborg and Jacob Boehme. Again, from Baudelaire Rimbaud obviously derived interests stemming1 1 J

Viatte Les Sources Occulles due Romanlisme. Dennis Saurat, Le Religion de Victor Hugo.

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from Swedenborg and Lavater. Still, he seems to have had no other definite sources of knowledge than those provided by books easily available to him; he drew from Eliphas Levi and Pierre Leroux the symbolism that is the essence of Les Illuminations, Un Saison en Enfer and Le Bateau lure, whilst the famous ‘sonnet of the vowels’ has something magical in its transposition of the senses—part of that ‘systematic derangement of all the senses’ which was to qualify him as a voyant. ‘He.dreamed’, says Peter Quennell, ‘of the supreme power which the magicians . . . had promised to their adepts, and hoped to transform the language . . . ’ Moreover he was prepared actually to practise the magic whose symbolism he exploited, though whether he actually did more than dabble lightly is doubt­ ful; he probably knew a good deal more about it than T. S. Eliot knew of the Tarot when he wrote the Waste Land, but it was essentially a similar process of finding a wineskin into which to pour new wine—the wineskin suffering somewhat by the com­ bination.’ The History of Magic was at once received as a standard work in this period which, as we have seen, was filled with occult interests. Christian's preoccupation with intuitive divination by means of the letters that spell out a name or question, which he called the Prenestine Fates, both reflected and intensified the taste of the time. The work became widely known abroad and Madame Blavatsky referred to it in 1888 in the Secret Doctrine.1 The book’s career suffered the same check as did the rest of French life from the Franco-Prussian War which began the year of its publication. Christian was in Paris during it and witnessed the siege of Paris and the regime of the Commune. Once again he turned his experiences to good account in his last published work, the History of the IVar with Prussia and of the Two Sieges of Paris, 1870-71, published 1872-3. 5

Enid M. Starkie. Arthur Rimbaud; also P. Debrav. Rimbaua; le Magtcten Desabuse; A. E. Waite Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, the Unknown Philoso­ pher; Peter Quennell's introduction to the English translation of Verlaine Confessions of a Poet, 1950.

*

The "army of the voice" is a term closely connected with Sound and Speech, as the effect and corollary of the cause—Divine Thought. As beauti­ fully expressed by Paul Christian . . the word spoken by as well as the name of every individual largely determines his future fate.'—Commentary on Stanza IV of-the Rook of Dtyan in the Secret Doctrine, Book I, p. 93 Jirst edition].

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His energies would seem to have flagged with the decline in his health after this, for no later published works are traceable and he died at Lyons 12 July 1877, at 66. There does remain, however, according to a Dorbon catalogue, an unpublished work of more than 10,000 lines, of considerable importance to occult students. Dated from February to June 1871, it is an epistolary course in what is called ‘onomantic astrology', the letters being addressed to a pupil of his, Jacques Charrot. They form, it appears, a very detailed and complete series of instructions, in the course of which occur vivid allusions to the stirring contemporary events which he illustrated by horoscopes and comments on various personages such as Eliphas Levi [M. Constant] whom he disliked and Edmond the palmist. He speaks of his own life, complains of very poor health, and states his intention of starting a Faculty of Occult Sciences. He makes moreover certain corrections to the History of Magic. Christian’s journalistic activities and collaborations are detailed, together with other particulars, in an uncompleted series of articles in La Lumiere 1893-94, a monthly review for which his son was then writing on occult subjects. Other sources for his life are scattered and unsatisfactory. Material for the foregoing notes has been drawn mainly from his own prefaces, the review Polybiblion and a notice in the Bibliotheca Esoterica of the publishing house of Dorbon, with the kind assistance of the Service de Documentation of the Biblioth&que Nationale. R.N.

ANALYSED CONTENTS VOLUME I Editor's Note

Paul Christian : A memoir ANALYSED CONTENTS

List of Diagrams and Tables BOOK ONE

AT THE GATES OF THE SUPERNATURAL Chapter I Charles Nodier and the initiation of this work j— Catherine de’ Medici, Charles IX, Henri IV and the Massacre of S. Bartholomew y—Come Ruggieri and Catherine 6.

Chapter II Come Ruggieri, Auger Ferrier and Catherine 7— Catherine de’ Medici’s death 7—prevalence of divination at this period 9. Chapter III Monastic library sources .used by Christian 10— Claudius Ptolemy de Peluse and Junctin [Junctinus] de Florence 10—Julius Firmicus Maternus 12—Jacques Gaffarel and Cardinal Richelieu zj—Morin de Villefranche and David­ son 14—Morin and Richelieu 25.

Chapter IV The Church and divination: S. Jerome’s Pre­ faces 16—distinguished patrons of the art 17.

xvi Chapter V The word ‘magic’ and its Chaldaean definitions by the Magi 18—natural origins of religion in Mountain Theology 21—sky observation in India 23—theological obser­ vations by Camille Flammarion 24—divination of wonders surrounding the birth of Christ by Ephraim the Syrian 25.

Chapter VI The Indian Shasta-Bad and outline of Indian theology 27—note on the Trimurthi and on the Vaishnuvite account of the creation 29—Hebrew and Christian theology and its parallels elsewhere 3/—notes on Akhnaten and on the Indian source of the Eden legend 32—note on the Great Flood and its modern authentication 34.

Chapter VII Perversions of Hinduism in Kali worship and Thuggee 55—widows and Suttee: an eyewitness’s account 57 Chapter VIII Mithraism and Persian theology 40—the Sufis and the doctrine of the Magi 42—the way of self-abasement 42— Persian magic and astrology 43—note on alleged fatalism in the Muslim creed 43. Chapter IX Egyptian history 46—account of the Egyptian con­ stitution and the caste of the Magi 48—laws and administration of Egypt 50.

Chapter X Observations by the Magi embodied in HermesThoth 33—the Pymander ^4—doctrine of intermediary spirits 38—the Magi and the original forms of the zodiac 59— note on the three outer planets recently discovered 59—general theory of the zodiac with chart 60—the twelve houses covering aspects of life 62—triplicities and stages of human life 64.

Chapter XI [omitted: see note in text]. Chapter XII The seven spirits and the ten circles 66—Dionysius and the seraphs 69—Origen’s approach to astrologers 71— schools of Greek and Alexandrian philosophy 72. Chapter XIII The Ecstatic Voyage of Athanasius Kircher 73— Joseph de Maistrc 75—Balzac and the essential reasonableness of magic and astrology 76.

BOOK TWO

THE MYSTERIES OF THE PYRAMIDS

Chapter I Distribution of power in Egypt 81—description of the Pyramids 82—note on Thoth-Hermes and the hermetic books 83—account of the Sphinx 83—its origin and sym­ bolism 86.

Chapter II Use of the Sphinx as entrance to the corridors lead­ ing to the initiation chambers for postulants to the caste of the Magi and account of this by Iamblicus 89—monstrosities and horrors go—echoes and tunnels 92. Chapter III 22 pairs of pictures in the gallery of the sphinxes 94 —full exposition of these 22 arcana: I The Magus 95—Il The Dawn of the Occult Century 96—III Isis-Urania 97—IV The Cubic Stone 98—V The Master of the Arcana 99—VI The Two Roads 100—VII The Chariot of Osiris 101—VIII Themis 102 —IX The Veiled Lamp 70;—X The Sphinx 103—XI The Tamed Lion 104—XII The Sacrifice 104—XIII The Scythe 103 —XIV The Solar Spirit 106—XV Typhon 106—XVI The Lightning-Struck Tower 707—XVII The Star of the Magi 108— XVIII Twilight 108—XIX The Blazing Light 709—XX The Awakening of the Dead 709—O The Crocodile 770—XXI The Crown of the Magi 770—Diagram of this and summary of the teaching 777.

Chapter IV Further initiation 112—ceremony of initiation 114 —final test 775—previous ordeals 776—ordeals by the goblets and swords 118. Chapter V Ordeal by beautiful maidens 120—the phantom death by sphinx 722—Plato, Moses and the teachings of the Magi, note on Pharaoh’s daughter and the possible Pharaoh of the Exodus 122—the judgment hall of the dead 123—course of study and grades of initiation of the Magi 124.

xviii Chapter VI Claims of Freemasonry 126—its foundation by Elias Ashmole, note on Christian's defective account 727—secret signs and degrees 128—the legend of Hiram and Solomon 130— development of masonic myth 752. Chapter VII General account of Freemasonry 753—Philip of Orleans 134—present divisions and rites 7^5.

Chapter VIII Freemasonry as a fosterer of free thought and revolution—emblems and methods 737—Count Cagliostro [Giuseppe Balsamo], life and career 779—his Egyptian rite 140 —Madame de Lamballe 141—the general Convent of 1785 141. Chapter IX Cagliostro’s address to the French Freemasons 14j —the Rose Cross of the Magi 144—diagram 145—the Alphabet of the Magi, diagram 147—Cagliostro demonstrates his system of divination from names 148.

Chapter X Examples of name divination: Luc Gauric and Catherine de’ Medici 752—Ruggieri and Henri III 755—his prophecies of Henri IV and Louis XIII 154—of Louis XVI 755 —and of Marie Antoinette 158. Chapter XI Madame de Lamballe again 759—Cagliostro pre­ dicts the Revolution and Napoleon 763—the Dauphin’s fate 163 —Revolution to be ended by Napoleon 164.

Chapter XII Freemasonry in the Revolution 166—prediction to Cardinal de Rohan 166—fulfilment 769—fall of Cagliostro 769—his last prophetic inscription 777—death 772.

BOOK III

THE ANCIENT ORACLES, THE SIBYLS AND THE FATES Chapter I The seven spirits of the spheres 775—Iamblicus and his Egyptian Mysteries 775—the Angels in Hebrew and Christian religion 776—misunderstandings by the Greeks 77S.

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Chapter II The oracles of Greece 179—account of Delphi and its Pythia 180—account by Apollonius of Tyana of a visit there 180—Dodona, a tree oracle 182—the oracle of Trophonius 184—Plutarch’s account of Timarcus’ visit there 185. Chapter III The ten Sibyls of antiquity 187—Tarquinius Superbus and the Cumaean Sibyl 189—origin of the Sibylline Books 192—expectations and prophecies of Christ 192—Julius Caesar and auguries 193—the Ides of March 195—Augustus [Octavius] and the Delphic Oracle 195—note on the cult of the genius of the Emperor 195—the Palatine Sibyl and the coming of Christ 196. Chapter IV [omitted]. Chapter V The Druidesses of Britanny 197—account of druidic beliefs and creeds 198—assembly and human sacrifice 200— Vercingetorix’ struggle against Caesar 201.

Chapter VI Growth of magic in Rome 202—persecutions of magicians by Augustus, Tiberius, Nero and Vitcllius 202— account of Roman witchcraft 20j—Anacharsis’ account of a love spell 203—and of raising the dead on Taenarus 205—details of sacrifices 206—the science of poisoning 207—Nero reproved by the Delphic oracle 207.

Chapter VII Apollonius visits Nero’s Rome 209—his prophecies 270—his doctrine and approach to Egyptian wisdom 211—his fulfilled prophecies 273—his trial before Domitian 215. Chapter VIII The Prenestine Fates 216—Pierre Le Clerc and the Due d’Orleans 277—Charlotte Corday 220—Robespierre consults Le Clerc 222—Bonaparte does so 225—prophecies of the coup d’etat and Empire and of the fate of Josephine 224.

Chapter IX A negress’s prophecy to Josephine 226—Pierre Le Clerc's testament to Napoleon 228—prophecy of Napoleon’s downfall 229—diagrams of the birth and exile of Napoleon 237 and 252. Chapters X and XI [omitted: see note in text].

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Chapter XII Omens surrounding early Emperors 233—the Emperors’ knowledge and use of divination and astrology 235— futility of imperial persecutions 235.

BOOK FOUR MAGIC FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES Chapter I Decay of society under the early Emperors and the coming of Christianity 239—the Faith in the catacombs and Tertullian’s sense of triumph in the early third century 240— details of torture 240—the rise of Constantine 241—his terrors and toleration of Christianity 242—position and philosophy of polytheism 243—the Christian arguments 244—political con­ fusion, the philosophers and Christianity 245. Chapter II Neoplatonism and the use of talismans 246— the education of Julian the Apostate: influenced by the philosopher Edesius of Pergamos and his followers 2^7— Maximus of Ephesus initiates Julian 250—he becomes Caesar and Emperor 252. Chapter III Supernatural apparitions in the classical world 254 —Apollonius and the demon-bride of Menippus, from Philostratus 255—the bishop and the beautiful visitor 257—her strange riddles 260—she is unmasked as the Devil by a vision of S. Andrew 261—the element of the marvellous in James of Voraggio and Surius of Lubeck 262. Chapter IV The reign and campaigns of Julian 262—he re­ establishes polytheism 263—his favourite Maximus 264— calumnies against Julian by the Christians 265—the spirit of the Empire appears to him before his death 266—he is ‘reunited with the spirits of the stars’ 267. Chapter V Jovian, Valentinian and Valens 268—their brutalities 268—Palladius divines Valens’ successor 269—Theodosius perse­ cutes all divination and paganism 27/—pagan cults adapted to Christianity 272—Christianised paganism in France, Sicily and Greece 275—relics replace oracles 27^—wells and yule-logs as pagan relics 27/.

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Chapter VI The religion of the Norse barbarians 275—Valhalla and particulars of Germanic beliefs 276—influence of natural surroundings on their concepts 276—German fairy priestesses, Ossian and Gaelic beliefs in Scotland 277—protecting spirits and banshees [beansidhe] 278—Christianity adapts Greek myth and accounts by initiates of journeys among the dead for its Purgatory and Hell 279.

Chapter VII S. Patrick and Patrick’s Purgatory on Lough Derg 280—treatment of postulants 281—Louis Ennius’ account of his journey through Purgatory 282—possible explanation of the phenomena 283—surmises upon the means of causing visions 289. Chapter VIII The story of the blasphemies and punishments of the Rhenish Count Berthold 290—he is saved by calling upon God 294—the lily that grew from the heart of the ignorant poor knight 295—sacred mythology of the Middle Ages 296— note on the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 297 —Voltaire’s dictum on history 297. Chapter IX Revival of learning by Charlemagne and Alcuin 298—the terrors of the year 1000 and strange portents of the period 298—the Devil and demons proliferate as the result of strange phenomena 300—note on the year 1000 300.

Chapter X The Crusades, Merlin and the Fountain of Youth 300—Arnaud de Villeneuve’s recipe for the elixir of youth 301.

Chapter XI Theophrastus Paracelsus’ doctrine of talismans 303 —full account of the seven talismans with diagrams: Saturn 304 —table of Epacts 306—Jupiter 307—Mars 309—the Sun 310— Venus 312—Mercury 313—the Moon 313—angels, genii and demons from the Hebrew Teraphim, Egypt and the Christian mystics 317—the conjuring of the Devil and the extension of his realm 319—Alfred Maury’s account of exorcism 320— Christian sorcery and the Inquisition 321—witchcraft trials and burnings 322.

VOLUME II

BOOK FIVE

SUPERNATURAL SCIENCES AND CURIOSITIES Chapter I Witches’ Sabbaths and their locations 527—the etymology of the word Sabbath 52S—the interdependence of witchcraft and Catholicism 529—corrupt practices of the Papacy 330—the great noble and black magician Gilles de Laval or Rais, Baron de Retz 330—his fall and burning at the stake 533. Chapter II Witches and warlocks as midwives and physicians 334—some 40 recipes from medieval herbalist practice, with modern comment and confirmation 535 et seq. Chapter III Means of Divination: Dactyloscopy or divination by the ring, with the planetary genii and engraved images to be attached to each precious stone 373—their means of use 34^ —rhabdoscopy, divination by wand or dowsing, note on modern particulars 344—dowsing methods, Athanasius Kircher and the Abb6 Bignon 545—Christian’s disbelief 346—cereoscopy or divination by wax and by coffee grounds: methods and sym­ bols 346—coscinoscopy or divination by sieve in Brittany and England 347—kleidoscopy or divination by key, as used in Russia 348—hydroscopy or divination by water 348—hieroscopy or divination by sacrifice amongst the ancient Hebrews, in Greece and in Rome 349—note on S. Dominic and the Albigenses 350—pyromancy or divination by fire, also lychnoscopy or divination by candles 350—metoposcopy or divination by the forehead: directions for analysis of configurations and lines 35/.

xxiii Chapter IV Demonoscopy or Divination by Genii. Supernatural and fairy beings of Western Europe and especially of the Celts 554—Druidic survivals 355—Avalon and Welsh fairies 356— comparison with peris of the East 557—derivation of the word ‘fay’ and marriage with fairies 358—Dutch fairies 559—the White Ladies 559—fairy characteristics allied to the wilis of Germany and the late Roman mntri 360—weapons and accoutrements of fairies ?6r—the sidhe and feats performed by Scottish fairies

Chapter V Domestic habits of Welsh and English fairies and goblins 362—the German stille-volk 363—fairy lights 364— Norwegian elves and elementals 565—supernatural beings of the Faroe Isles, Sweden and Zeeland 366—hostile fairies and hirings to death in Scotland and elsewhere 567—the Danish nokke and the salvation of one of them 368. Chapter VI Chirology, cheiromancy, chiroscopy or divination by the study of the palm. The science of the hand, being additional material by Mir Bashir, together with diagrams, Christian’s text being subjoined 360—oneiromancy or divina­ tion by drcam: full quotation of the work of S. Nicephorus of Constantinople, being some 122 dreams with the original inter­ pretations and also modern oriental and western psychological analyses 777 el seq.—the opinion of Paul Lacroix on dreams 596.

Chapter VII Theophrastus Paracelsus, the Renaissance physi­ cian 597—his directions for the creation of a homunculus 398 —XVth and XVIth century sources for sorcery: the BlackBooks 400—spells from the Black-Books: note on general direc­ tions for interpretation 401—three ways to make a mandragora 401—directions for acquiring, doubling and discovering wealth 403—immunity from certain disasters 404—to prevent sleep 404 —to collect dogs, to cause a girl to dance, to be revenged on an offender 405.

Chapter VIII Further spells from the Black-Books. Nine methods of winning at gambling or lotteries 406—to check epilepsy, to avert enemy attack, to protect a garden against caterpillars and bugs 408—to make a tree barren, to gather swallows, to prevent

xxiv sleep, to avert plague, to prevent the leaving of a room, to travel without danger 409—to cause illusion of size, obtain favour from the powerful, love from kisses, illusion of serpents in a room, cause death to all fish in a pond, to stir up a quarrel at table 410—to prevent eating at table, induce courtesy, cause wild dancing, cause the appearance of little people, have diabolical drcams, dream of a woman’s favours 411—to possess a loved one, nine methods 412—to avert the loss of a woman’s love, cause quarrels from aversion, diagnose virginity, prevent conception, know a woman’s intimate secrets, two methods 414 —to dream the image of a future wife or husband 415.

Chapter IX Gems and their properties. Black agate and elcctorine 415—pink amethyst, cornelian, chalcedony, red coral, chrysalite, crystal, diamond, emerald, topaz, garnet, jacinth, beryl, onyx, sardonyx, jasper, sapphire, pearl, selenite, the lode­ stone and its properties 417—to obtain success from letters 417 to cause the death of any enemy: spell with an egg 41S—spell with wax image 419.

Chapter X Pacts with the Devil: Christian excuses himself for not giving actual conjurations 419—accounts of medieval depravity quoted from Jacques de Vitry, Gaultier de Coinsy and the Paris Parlement registers 420—denunciations by the preacher Maillard, Gerson and Nicolas Clemangis 421—mis­ deeds of popes and remarks by Rend Benoist and Pierre de I’Estoile 422—reactions by priestly and theological authority 422 —the Church fabricates legends of infernal personalities 427— full account of Johann Faust 427—note on the Faust and Mephistopheles legends, being additional material by Dr. Charles Richard Cammcll 427—the story of Don Ambrosio’s pact with the Devil, from Gregory Lewis 412. Chapter XI The authorship and content of the Enchiridion, Grimoire and Clavicula Salomonis 474—Charlemagne’s treat­ ment of popes and assumption of power 435—details of the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III 476—the Black Book of Pope Honorius III and details of the Clavicula Salomonis: rabbinical traditions about King Solomon 477—the Secretum Secretorum

XXV

and Psalterium Mirabile 438—how to use the 137th psalm as a spell 439eastern and Tibetan magic, being additional material arranged by Ross Nichols. Differences between eastern and western magic: quotation from Amaury de Riencourt 440— characteristics of Tibetan psychic phenomena 441—the genera­ tion of tumo or internal heat 442—lung-gom or entranced movement at speed 444—the message sent on the wind or tele­ pathy 445—Tibetan seances and the creation of thought-forms 446—teachings concerning the region beyond death 446—pre­ vention of the return of the dead, after-death experiences and the achievement of union with the Buddha, also parallels with Egypt 447—separation of the bardo body from the corpse and instruction in the art of choosing a womb 448—rebirth: acceptance of the idea by western scientists 448—the Tibetan Book of the Dead and instructions how to avoid rebirth and where to choose to be born 449—the performance of Chod and liberation from fear 449—the Indian origin of Yoga and refer­ ence to authorities 450.

were animals and beliefs concerning corpses, being addi­ tional material arranged by Ross Nichols. Were animals, one aspect of Voodoo 430—revived corpses: the rolang and Iron jug rites, jibbuks, zombies and voordalaks or vampires 471.

psychic research, being additional material by Margery Law­ rence. Antiquity and early examples of spiritualism 471—the beginnings of modern spiritualism and its present-day achieve­ ment 453—Socrates and his guide or daimonion 477—Biblical apparitions and miracles 454—ultimate reconciliation of the churches with spiritualism inevitable 474. the savage background of witch beliefs, being additional material collated by Ross Nichols from E. Lucas Bridges. The significance of the customs in Tierra del Fuego, the origin of the Hain or lodge of initiated males as a reaction against dominance by women 436—the creation of bogus supernatural figures and the utilitarian location of the wigwam 457.

BOOK SIX

GENERAL THEORY OF THE HOROSCOPE Chapter I General remarks and reference to preceding material 461—note on modern astrology and recommendations to inquirers 461—Astrological Calendar of the Egyptian magi 461 —division into the fatidic or sacred year and the Roman year, arguments over the placing of the epacts 462—table of signs and dates 462—cyclic tables of the years divided by periods of 36 463—diagram of planetary aspects 464. Chapter II The seven circles of fate: Saturn 464—Jupiter 466— Mars 467—Sun 468—Venus 469—Mercury 471—Moon ^72. Chapter III Division of the 78 symbols into 5 series ^73—the greater genii or archangels, the Masters of the Royal Stars and the 36 planetary genii or Decans 473—the mystery of the 12 signs of the zodiac: bodily regions which they govern 474— planetary genii and the bodily regions governed by them 475— correspondencies between the 12 great Graeco-Roman gods, the 12 Tribes of Israel, the 12 sacred precious stones and the zodiacal signs 475—qualifications of the signs 475—the 36 Decans, with their archangels, degrees, dates and character indications 476-478—astrological notes on the planets with dia­ grams 479-481—planetary aspects, general, with diagram 481487—table of lunary epacts 483—table of monthly phases of the moon 484—planetary aspects continued 484—table of planetary dignities 486—table of planetary debilities 486—general indica­ tions 487—major and minor fortunes 488. Chapter IV Consideration of identical horoscopes 489—num­ bers and names, the method of applying numerology 490— example drawn from Louis XVI 490—the use of the fatidic circle, application to and illustration in the horoscope of Louis XVI 492—definite study of the horoscope of Louis XVI with diagram 494—astrological table of the years of life for day and night nativities 500—application of the Prenestine system

xxvii

of numerology to various queries: to Sylvain Bailly’s resolution of 1789 50Z—to the question of Louis XVI’s escape 50/—how to cast the annual horoscope, together with the circle of fate 502—diagram of the horoscope of Louis XVI’s death 505— Prenestine system applied to Louis Napoleon 507—queries as to attempted revolts $08—on his escape from Ham and on his secretary Henri Conneau 509—on the 1848 Revolution 5/0—on Cavaignac, candidate for the French Presidency 5//—on Louis Napoleon’s ascent to power 5/z—on the attempted Orsini assassination 5/2—on Cadoudel’s attempt upon Napoleon I, and on the Due d’Enghien 5/5—on Abraham Lincoln and his assassination 5/4—on Maximilian of Mexico Archduke of Austria and the Empress Charlotte 5/5—on Isabella II of Spain 5/7—examination of the horoscope of Napoleon Bonaparte 518 —examination of the horoscope of Maximilian of Mexico, with diagrams of his birth and death 525—reflections upon the nature of astrology and the factor of the human will 55/. note on Christian’s Prenestine divinations and modern psycho-analysis, being additional material by Julian Shaw 547.

BOOK SEVEN THE GENERAL KEYS OF ASTROLOGY

The sources of astrology: Julius Firmicus Maternus, Junctin or Junctinus of Florence and Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium [P£luse] 555. Part I: Keys of the Natal Horoscope. Saturn in the 12 houses 535—Saturn in the 12 signs 536“—Saturn and its aspects 540— Jupiter in the 12 houses 542—Jupiter in the 12 signs 545— Jupiter and its aspects 544—Mars in the 12 houses 576—Mars in the 12 signs 548—Mars and its aspects 549—the Sun in the 12 houses 550—the Sun in the 12 signs 555—Venus in the 12 houses 554—Venus in the 12 signs 556—Venus and its aspects 557—Mercury in the 12 houses 555—Mercury in the 12 signs

xxviii 559—Mercury and its aspects 560—the Moon in the is houses 56/—the Moon in the 12 signs 562. Enemies and perils, various, nos. 253-398, 563. Fortunate or unfortunate chances 57/. Part II

Keys of the Annual Horoscope, various, nos. 412-570, 574.

Epilogue Particulars of a theurgic experiment for raising the spirit of the dead 5S5—note on a similar experiment by Eliphas Levi before Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton 5S5—detailed directions as to the room and its dispositions 586—copper tripods, lamb­ skins, a white marble altar and four sphinxes are necessary 5S7 —an azure blue silk robe, a tiara of emeralds, a violet crown, azure blue silk shoes and a swan's feather fan 5^7—consecration, ritual and meditations 588—fasts and sacrifice 5