|
Secret Traditions ; It
has long been an article of faith with students of
occultism that the secret tenets of the various sciences
embraced within it have been preserved to modern times by
a series of adepts, who have handed them down from
generation to generation in their entirety. There is no
reason to doubt this belief, but that the adepts in
question existed in one unbroken line, and that they all
professed similar principles is somewhat improbable. But
one thing is fairly certain, and that is, that proficiency
in any one of the occult sciences requires tuition from a
master of that branch. All serious writers on the subject
are at one as regards this. It is likely that in neolithic
times societies existed among our barbarian ancestors,
similar in character to the Midiwiwin of the
North-American Indians, the snake-dancers of the Hopi of
New Mexico, or the numerous secret societies of aboriginal
Australians. This is inferred from the certainty that
totemism existed amongst neolithic peoples. Hierophantic
castes would naturally hand down the tradition of the
secret things of the Society from one generation to
another. The early mysteries of Egypt, Eleusis, Samothrace,
Cabiri, and so forth were merely the elaboration of such
savage mysteries. There would appear to have been
throughout the ages, what might be called, a fusion of
occult beliefs: that when the hierophants of one system
found themselves in juxtaposition, or even in conflict,
with the professors of another, the systems in question
appear to have received much from one another. It has been
said that when the ancient mysteries are spoken about, it
should be understood thatone and the same series of sacred
ceremonies is intended, one and the same initiatory
processes and revelations, and
that what is true of one applies with equal certainty to
all the others. Thus Strabo records that the strange
orgies in honour of the mystic birth of Jupiter resembled
those of Bacchus, Ceres and Cybele; and the Orphic poems
identified the orgies of Bacchus with those of Ceres,
Rhea, Venus and Isis. Euripides also mentions that the
rites of Cybele are celebrated in Asia Minor in an
identical manner with the Grecians mysteries of Dionysius
and the Cretan rites of the Cabiri. The Rev. Geo. Oliver
in his History of Initiation affirms tliat the rites of
the science which is now received under the appellation of
Freemasonry were exercised in the antediluvian world,
received by Noah after the Flood, practised by man at the
building of Babel, conveniences for which were undoubtedly
contained in that edifice, and at the dispersion spread
with every settlement already deteriorated by the gradual
innovations of the Cabiric priests, and moulded into a
form, the great outlines of which are distinctly to be
traced in the mysteries of every heathen nation, and
exhibit shattered remains of the one true system, whence
they were derived. This theory is of course totally
mischievous, and although there may have been likenesses
between the rites of certain societies, the idea that all
sprang from one common source is absurd. One thing,
however, is fairly certain : anthropology permits us to
believe that the concepts of man, religious and mystical,
are practically identical in whatever part of the world he
may exist, and there is every possibility that the
similarity between early mysteries results in this manner,
and that it brought about a strong resemblance between the
mystical systems of the older world. We have satisfactory
evidence that the ancient mysteries were receptacles of a
great deal of occult wisdom, symbolism, magical or
semi-magical rite, and mystical practice in general; and
we are pretty well assured that when these fell into
desuetude among the more intellectual classes of the
various countries in which they obtained, they were taken
up and practised in secret by the lesser ranks of society,
even the lowest ranks, who are in all ages the most
conservative, and who clung faithfully to the ancient
systems, refusing to partake in the rites of the religions
which had ousted them. The same can be posited of magical
practice. The principles of magic are universal, and there
can be no reason to doubt that these were handed on
throughout the long centuries by hereditary castes of
priests, shamans, medicinemen, magicians, sorcerers,' and
witches. But the same evidence does not exist with .regard
to the higher magic, concerning which much more difficult
questions arise. Was this handed on by means of secret
societies, occult schools or universities, or from adept
to adept ? We speak not of the sorceries of empirics and
savages, but of that spiritual magic which, taken in its
best sense, shades into mysticism. The schools of
Salamanca, the mystic colleges of Alexandria, could not
impart the great truths of this science to their
disciples: its nature is such that communication by
lecture would be worse than useless. It is necessary to
suppose then that it was imparted by one adept to another.
But it is not likely that it arose at a very early period
in the history of man. In his early psychological state he
would not require it; and we see no reason for belief that
its professors came into existence at an earlier period
than some three or four thousand years B.C. The
undisturbed nature of Egyptian and Babylonian civilisation
leads to theielief^that these countries brought forth a
long serie^ofadepts urthe higher magic. We know-that
Alexandria fell heir to the works of these men, but it is
unlikely/that their teachings were publicly disseminated
in her public schools. Individuals of high magical
standing would however be in possession of the occult
knowledge of ancient Egypt, and that they imparted this to
the Greeks of Alexandria is certain. Later Hellenic and
Byzantine magical theory is distinctly Egyptian in
character, and we know that its esoteric forms were
disseminated in Europe at a comparatively early date, and
that they placed all other native systems in the
background, where they were pursued in the shadow by the
aboriginal witch and sorcerer. We have thus outlined the
genealogy of the higher magic from early Egyptian times to
the European mediaeval period. Regarding alchemy, the
evidence from analogy is much more sure, and the same may
be said as regards astrology. These are sciences in which
it is peculiarly necessary to obtain the assistance of an
adept if day excellence is to be gained in their practice
; and we^ know-that-the-first' originated in Egypt, and
the second in ancient Babylon. We are not aware of the
names of those early adepts who carried the sciences
forward until the days of Alexandria, but subsequent to
that period the identity of practically every alchemical
and astrological practitioner of any note is fully known.
In the history of no science is the sequence of its
professors so clear as is the case in alchemy, and the
same might almost be said as regards astrology, whose
protagonists, if they have not been so famous, have at
least been equally conscientious. We must pass over in our
consideration of the manner in which occult science
survived, the absurd legends which presume to state how
such societies as the Freemasons existed from antediluvian
times; and will content ourselves with stating that the
probabilities are that in the case of mystical
brotherhoods a long line of these existed from early
times, the traditions of which were practically similar.
Many persons would be members of several of these, and
would import the conceptions of one society into the heart
of another, as we know Rosicrucian ideas were imported
into Masonry. (See Freemasonry.) We seem to see in the
mystic societies of the middle ages reflections of the
older Egyptian and classical mysteries, and there is
nothing absurd in the theory that the spirit and in some
instances even the letter of these descended to mediaeval
and perhaps to present times. Such organisations die much
harder than any credit is given them for doing. We know,
for example, that Freemasonry was revolutionised at one
part of its career, about the middle of the seventeenth
century, by an influx of alchemists and astrologers, who
crowded out the operative members, and who strengthened
the mystical position of the brotherhood, and it is surely
reasonable to suppose that on the fall or desuetude of the
ancient mysteries, their disciples, looking eagerly for
some method of saving their cults from entire extinction,
would join the ranks of some similar society, or would
keep alive the flame in secret; but the fact remains that
the occult idea was undoubtedly preserved through the
ages, that it was the same in essence amongst the
believers in all religions and all mysteries, and that to
a great extent its trend was in the one direction, so that
the fusion of the older mystical societies and their
re-birth as a new brotherhood is by no means an unlikely
hypothesis. In the article on the " Templars " for
example, we have tried to show the possibility of that
brotherhood having received its tenets from the East,
where it sojourned for such a protracted period. It seems
very likely from what we learn of its rites that^they were
oriental in origin, and we know that the occult systems of
Europe owed much to the Templars, who, probably, after the
fall of their own Order secretly formed others or joined
existing societies. Masons have a hypothesis that through
older origins they inherited from the Dionysian
artificers, the artizans of Byzantium, and the building
brotherhoods of Western Europe. To state this dogmatically
as a fact would not be to gain so much credence for their
theory as is due to that concerning the dissemination of
occult lore by the Templars; but it is much more feasible
in every way than the absurd legend
concerning the rise of Freemasonry at the time of the
building of the Temple. Secret societies of any
description possess a strong attraction for a certain
class of mind, or else a merely operative handicraft
society, such as was mediaeval Masonry, would riot have
been utilised so largely by the mystics of that time. One
of the chief reasons that we know so little concerning
these brotherhoods in mediaeval times is that the charge
of dabbling in the occult arts-was ^/serious one in the
eyes of the law and the church, therefore they found it
necessary to carry on their prac--Xtices in secret. But
after the Reformation, a modern spirit took possession of
Europe, and the protagonists of the occult sciences came
forth from their caverns and practised in the open light
of day. In England, for example, numerous persons avowed
themselves alchemists; in Germany the-" Rosicrucians "
sent out a manifesto ; in Scotland, Seton, a great master
of the hermetic art, arose: never had occultism possessed
such a heyday. But it was nearly a century later until
further secret societies were formed, such as the Academy
of the Ancients and of the Mysteries in 1767; the Knights
of the True Light founded in Austria about 1780; the
Knights and Brethren of Asia, which appeared in Germany in
the same year; the Order of Jerusalem which originated -in
America in 1791; the Society of the Universal Aurora
established at Paris in 1783. Besides being masonic, these
societies practised animal magnetism, astrology, Kabalism
and even ceremonial magic. Others were political, such as
the Illuminati, which came to such an inglorious end. But
the individual tradition was kept up by an illustrious
line of adepts, who were much more instrumental in keeping
alive the flame of mysticism than even such societies as
those we have mentioned. Mesmer, Swedenborg, St. Martin,
Pas-qually, Willermoz, all laboured to that end. We may
regard all these as belonging to the school of Christian
magicians, as apart from those who practised the rites of
the grimoires or Jewish Kabalism. The line may be carried
back through Lavater, Eckartshausen, and so on to the
seventeenth century. These men were mystics besides being
practitioners of theurgic magic, and they combined in
themselves the knowledge of practically all the occult
sciences.
With Mesmer began the revival of a science which cannot be
altogether regarded as occult, when consideration is-given
to its modern developments, but which powerfully
influenced the mystic life of his and many later days. The
mesmerists of the first era are in direct line with the
Martinists and the mystical magicians of the France of the
late eighteenth century. Indeed in the persons of some
English mystics, such as Greatrakes, mysticism and
magnetism are one and the same thing. But upon "
Hypnotism," to give it its modern name, becoming numbered
with the more practical sciences, persons of a mystical
cast of mind appear to have, to a great extent, deserted
it. Hypnotism does not bear the same relation to mesmerism
and magnetism as modern chemistry does to alchemy; but the
persons who practise' it nowadays are as dissimilar to the
older professors of the science as is the modern
practitioner of chemistry to the mediaeval alchemist. This
is symptomatic of the occult sciences, that they despise
that knowledge which is " exact" in the common sense of
the term. Their practitioners do not delight in labouring
upon a science, the laws of which are already known, cut
and dried. The student of occultism, as a rule, possesses
all the attributes of an explorer. The occult sciences
have from time to time deeply enriched the exact sciences,
but these enrichments have been acts of intellectual
generosity. It is in effect as if the occultist made a
present of them to the scientist, but did not desire to be
troubled with their future development in any way.
Occultism of the higher'
sort therefore does not to-day possess any great interest
in hypnotism, and modern mystics of standing scarcely
recognise it as a part of the hidden mysteries. But there
is no question that the early mesmerists formed a link
between the adepts of eighteenth-century France and those
of the present day. The occultists of to-day, however, are
harking farther back: they recognise that their
forerunners of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
drew their inspiration from older origins, and they feel
that these may have had cognisance of records and
traditions that we wot not of. The recovery of these is
perhaps for the moment the great question of modem magic.
But apart from this, modern magic of the highest type
strains towards mysticism, and partakes more than ever of
its character. It disdains and ignores ceremonial, and
exalts psychic experience. That is not to say that
numerous bodies do not exist throughout the world for the
celebration of magical rite ; but such fraternities have
existed from time immemorial, and tfieir protagonists
cannot be placed on a higher footing than the hallucinated
sorcerers of mediaeval times.
Home | Alternative
Medicine | Astrology | Channeling
|
Divination |
Esoteric & Occult |
Food
|
Life
After Death | Michael
Teachings
| Mind
& Body | Paranormal
| Philosophy
& Religion |
Relationships
| Spiritual
Growth
| World
Issues
|
