Ancient Mystery'! W-J-COLvfi Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/ancientmysteriesOOcolvrich Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations BY W, J. COLVILLR The Progressive Thinker Publishing House 106 Loomis St. Chicago, Illinois 19 16 > i ' Q C COPYRIGHT, 1916 By M. E. CADWALLADER Ancient Mysteries DEDICATION TO HALLEY'S COMET. Bright harbinger of glorious light, Illumining both morn and night, Fair messenger thro' vibrant space, Running thy rapid wondrous race, Untiring as the ages roll, Suggesting our undying soul. Witness to Heaven's all-constant law, From thee we inspiration draw. Welcome, thrice welcome, in our sky. Pointing to days of freedom nigh. As on thy radiant form I look. To thee I dedicate this book. May i8, 1910. W. J. Coi.vii.le:. "'I'lSlO PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND MODERN REVELATION In presenting to our readers as an addition to The Progressive Thinker Library this volume so replete with information from the inspired pen of W. J. Col- ville, the gifted lecturer and author, we are adding a book well worth the perusal of every student of advanced thought. The Progressive Thinker Library is composed of books which will rank with the leading books upon Spiritual, Educational, Scientific, and Occult subjects, and we are enhancing its value by adding to it Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelation. We trust our readers will enjoy its pages and accept the best wishes of the publisher. M. E. Cadwallader. • • CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Bibles Under Modern Searchlight 15 II. Rivers of Life or Faiths of Man in All Lands 7,2 III. Ancient and Modern Ideas of Revelation — Its Sources and Agencies 53 l\\ Various Spiritual Elements in the Bible and Classic Literature 72 V. Creation Legends — How Ancient is Hu- manity on this Planet? — Hindu Chro- nology 90 VI. Egypt and Its Wonders: Literally and Mystically Considered loi VII. The Philosophy of Ancient Greece — The School of Pythagoras — The Delphic Mysteries 114 VIII. Apollonius of Tyana 139 IX. Five Varieties of Yoga — Union of East- ern and Western Philosophy 145 X. Ezekiel's Wheel — What it Signifies — Astrology in Prophecy 162 XL Emanuel Swedenborg and His Doctrine of Correspondences 170 XII. The Book of Exodus— Its Practical and Esoteric Teachings 189 XIII. The Story of the Passover and the Pillar of Fire in the Wilderness 203 CONTENTS. CHAPTER ~ PAGE XIV. The Message of Buddhism — Purity and Philanthropy 215 XV. Magic in Europe in the Middle Ages — Its Connection with Mysterious Healing and Marvellous Deliverances 228 XVI. Ancient Magic and Modern Therapeutics — Paracelsus and Von Helmont 241 XVII. Jeanne D'Arc, the Maid of Orleans 261 XVIII. Andrew Jackson Davis, a Nineteenth Century Seer — A Glimpse at His Phi- losophy 280 XIX. Bible Symbolism — Aaron's Breastplate and Other Typical Ornaments and Em blems — The Moral Influence of Beauty and the Significance of Color 292 XX. Life and Matter — The Latest Views on Evolution — Position of Sir Oliver Lodge . 304 XXI. The Law of Seven and the Law of Unity. 311 XXII. Spiritualism and the Deepening of Spirit- ual Life 316 XXIII. The Esoteric Teachings of the Gnostics — The Divine Feminine 336 XXIV. Halley's Comet— Its History and Portent — Visible in 1910 347 Psychopathic Treatment; or Suggestive Therapy in Practical Application 353 AUTHOR'S FOREWORD. In presenting the following pages to the world I desire to offer a few explanatory words concerning the form in which this book appears. During my 6 months' residence in the city of Washington, U. S. A., which comprised the winter of 1909-10, I was earnestly entreated by many friends to compile a volume which should embody the gist of a very large number of lectures delivered during that period, especially those which dealt particularly with the Sacred Books of the world. Owing to the very large amount of space re- quired for even the barest outline of treatment of the Scriptures venerated by Jews and Christians alone, to say nothing of the Sacred Books of other faiths, I have attempted to present in this volume only discourses on those themes which have been specially brought to my attention by friends and students in many different places which I have visited and where my earlier books have widely circulated. To take up this entire subject at any length, or even to treat any portion of it with any- thing like fullness, would necessitate the publication of quite a long series of volumes, to which the present fragmentary work may possibly consitute an introduction. This particular book aims only vii viii Preface. at presenting, in meagre outline, a view of revel- ation and inspiration which renders it easily possible for us to admire and venerate the Bibles of all peoples, without in any sense making a claim for their infallibility or finality. One of the chief objects of all these discourses or essays is to in- crease interest in universal aspects of religion and philosophy, and wherever possible to throw some light on doctrines which are still occasioning much perplexity in many quarters. So much general in- terest is now evinced regarding all that pertains to the psychic side of every subject, and so many curious and conflicting views are still expressed concerning matters designated ''occult" and "psych- ical," that it seems a highly important duty to do all we can to clear up mysteries and present our ripest and most helpful thought to the enquiring multi- tude, whatever may be our special viewpoint. One cannot keep in any degree abreast with current literature without encountering the most extra- ordinary ideas concerning the unseen universe, the mysteries of which the modern world, is making desperate endeavors to unravel. It is all in vain, in these days, for religious teachers to tell the masses that "secret things belong to God" and we have, therefore, no right to enquire into them, for were such a text to be pushed to its logical extremity, in the hands of many theologians it would mean putting an end to all investigation and blindly accepting the dictum of some pretentious hierarchy. It was this very attitude insisted upon by Dr. Pusey, but repudiated by Dean Stanley, which drove Mrs. Annie Besant to Atheism, from which Theosophy Preface. ix eventually rescued her. If we cannot believe in the reality of a Spiritual Universe and at the same time use our reason, then thinkers must of necessity take refuge in some form of Agnosticism which can never satisfy the affection and never per- manently content the intellect. If Bibles will not bear examination then the sooner they are consigned to the limbo of desuetude the better. — but if, as is maintained in the following ])ages, we can find much that is excellent in all of them, but the whole of truth in none, we do well to broaden our human sympathy by comparing Book with Book and System with System, to the end that we may at length discover a common religious and philo- sophical denominator. Magic as well as Mystery is dealt with in these lectures, chiefly on account of the great interest now prevalent in mysterious phenomena and the very misleading views in circu- lation concerning a topic which always lends itself readily to the exploitation of doctrines calculated to terrify the timid and support theories of the Uni- verse utterly incompatible with any sane and whole- some views of life here and hereafter Ancient and modern authors have been freely drawn upon to illustrate the many subjects briefly treated, and many valuable works are named, with the hope that those who read this treatise will derive benefit from studying the various questions herein outlined at much greater detail if time and opportunity permit and interest incite. In my judgment, the chief benefit to be derived from travel (and I have traveled considerably) is the evidence it furnishes of the oneness of our X Preface. humanity; and if literal material travels contribute to that important end, much more do mental excur- sions into many fields of diverse schools of Thought bring us mentally and sympathetically closer to- gether; and it is this intimate sense of togetherness which must ultimately banish warfare and bring to pass the fulfilment of the glorious prophecies common to all illumined prophets, that a day will dawn when all humanity will be so united that tho' nations may remain as distinct communities, they will be in spirit completely unified. It is impossible to predicate any ultimate unification of humanity on any less exalted basis than that of the essential goodness of human nature. Nothing keeps us apart so completely as false theology, on the one side, and gross materialism on the other. Could we once for all realize our common humanity vitally, as an in- disputable spiritual reality, we could not continue to indulge either race or class hatred. Race and class consciousness there may be, within reasonable limits, but race and class antagonisms are inconceiv- able if we realize our oneness. Speculative theology and philosophy which results in no widening realiz- ation of human unity, may be a scholastic exercise agreeable to certain active intellects, but it may well be dismissed as a superfluity by practical philan- thropists who aim directly at benefiting human beings here and now. One by one the strongholds of partialism and exclusivism are being broken down and human unity is standing radiantly disclosed. All the pitiable makeshifts of partialist theology are losing their hold on the thinking, loving, masses who are becoming more and more imbued with the Preface, xi beauty and dignity of Abraham Lincoln's majestic saying, *'A11 or None." This was that noble eman- cipator's answer to the question put to him by narrow-minded theologues concerning his views of human ultimate salvation. The stupid arrogance which imagines that some human beings will be finally blotted out, while others will enjoy everlast- ing conscious blessedness is intolerable in the light of all our deepest insight into the unity of our humanity. "Pilgrims of various probations," as Eliza Pitzinger calls us in her magnificent poem, "The Song of the Soul Victorious," we may be, and as such it is the privilege of the maturer to guide the less mature, and in the words of Lucy Larcom in her exquisite song, "Hand in Hand with Angels," we can well go thro' life "clinging to the strong ones ; drawing up the slow." Nothing could be more ridiculous than to claim that we know all about the processes whereby the ultimate glorification of the entire human family will be accomplished, but, to quote once more from Eliza Pitzinger, "Side by side we are marching onward, and in time we will all agree." In dealing with ancient Oriental Scriptures, or even with the most recent works couched in Orien- tal phraseology, we find an abundant use of meta- phor; it seems therefore incredible that any even slightly educated person to-day can experience any very great difficulty in translating the imagery with which all Bibles abound. "Fire" is no more to be taken literally when referred to as a means for puri- fying souls, than "sheep," "goats," "pieces of money," and a multitude of other symbolical ex- pressions are to be taken literally; but they convey xii . Preface. definite ideas allegorically, and are quite readily understood by all who have even a very small accquaintance with the significance of similitudes. There is much obscurity in much that is put for- ward as modern revelation, a fact which by no means proves that there is no truth in it, tho' it cannot fairly be foisted upon us as absolutely and irrevocably the final word on the subject of which it treats. Deeply grateful as we ought to be for every gleam of light that shines upon our mental and moral pathway, we miss the purpose of our educational experience directly we cease to inves- tigateclaims for ourselves and blindly endorse the dictum of another. My own researches in the Psychical field, which have been continuous from my childhood, have convinced me that however use- ful external phenomena may be in some cases, the only satisfactory assurance of immortality which can come to an individual — I mean an assurance that nothing can possibly overturn — must come thro' a development of one's inherent ability to discern spiritual relatities spiritually. The scientific world owes it to itself and to the larger unscientific world outside to fearlessly investigate all varieties of phe- nomena, and we have good reason to predict that present investigations will soon have led to radical changes in the popular belief concerning the con- stitution of our universe. Life continuous beyond physical dissolution is being proved on every side despite the incredulity of some investigators and the trickery of many mountebanks. Clairvoyance cannot be ruled out of court because tricks are played by greatly overlauded ^'mediums," nor can Preface. xiii any mental phenomenon be affected should it be proved that alleged physical phenomena are often spurious. We need not be dismayed at anything external if our inner faculties are well developed, and one of the most hopeful signs, of the times is that more and more attention is being given to cultivating faculties within us ^vhich we have allowed to lie fallow, but which are now asserting themselves with rapidly increasing vigor and dis- tinctness. Our horizon is not properly limited by the outermost physical senses which are all that many people imagine they possess; there are interior faculties bursting thro' and when these shall have made themselves more generally known and hon- ored we shall have entered upon an age of spiritual unfoldment to which the period of doubt and conflict now passing has surely led the way. With boundless confidence in the Power that makes for righteousness, and without a doubt as to the finally blessed outcome of all life's manifold and strange experiences, I throw this book upon the world trust- ing it will help in some slight measure to increase confidence in the "Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may." W. J. COLVILLE. May, 1 910. ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND MODERN REVELATIONS. CHAPTER I. : BIBLES UNDER MODERN SEARCHLIGHT. Nothing can be more evident than that two dia- metrically opposite mental tendencies are now figur- ing prominently on the intellectual horizon. We note everywhere an intense and sometimes even fanatic interest displayed in everything marvelous or mystical and at the same time we cannot but be impressed with the distinctly rationalistic, often amounting to an evidently agnostic, trend of thought in many influential directions. Modern Mysticism presents many curious aspects, for it is undoubtedly a strange compound of a very ancient love of the -marvelous, for its own sake, with the truly modern scientific spirit which is satisfied with nothing less than a critical and impartial investiga- tion of whatever claims to carry with it divine, or indeed any superordinary, authority. Between Mysticism and Occultism the famous Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Germany, declares there is this essential difference. The Mystic is one who realizes truth 15 1 6 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. in some interior intuitive manner, while the Occult- ist takes delight in observing and producing extra- ordinary phenomena, by means of which he hopes to gain some added insight into the laws and principles of the universe. The sacred literature of all ages and of all peoples abounds with striking illustrations that both Mystic- ism and Occultism were widely known and highly prized from the earliest periods, concerning which history informs us. The mystic element in all Bibles may be called truly religious in the deepest and most spiritual meaning of the term ; while all records of miracles may be classed as spectacular occurrences, calculated to impress the minds of many whose interior life may have been largely undeveloped, while their tendency to analyze external manifesta- tions of any unusual sort may have been quite as keen as we find it in the case of our most disting- uished modern scientists. We need always to remember when handling the complex problems of biblical criticism and psychical research (the two are far more closely allied than many scholars seem to imagine) that there are now among us just those very same distinctive types of human nature which co-existed in ages long gone by; therefore, while it is quite permissable to discriminate between higher and lower states of mind, as well as between differ- ing degrees of spiriual and moral enlightenment, we need to be extremely cautious lest we appear to condemn a certain mental attitude which is positive- ly inevitable in the case of many of our honorable neighbors, even though we ourselves may have no active sympathy with it We hear a great deal in Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 17 these days of Liberalism and of Modernism, but as a rule those terms are very loosely employed ; the former being used quite blindly and indiscrimin- ately to cover every conceivable phase of thought which people choose to call "unorthodox or un- conventional," while the latter is applied in par- ticular to certain theological opinions which have recently met with papal condemnation. We need as far as i>ossible, within the limited scope of our literary endeavors, to define these terms a little more precisely so as to give them a much clearer and more readily intelligible standing in our popular vocabulary. By Liberalism is properly meant not a destructive or simply lax philosophy, but a system of thought which is sufficiently elastic to stretch without breaking, and also good-natured and broad-minded enough to see good in many systems of thought and practice, not merely in those to which we ourselves are from some cause or other especially attached. By Modernism we ought to mean simply the opposite of Ancientism, a word not yet often met with, but one that is capable of rendering much valuable service in any debate where it is found necessary to define clearly the modernist position. While it would sound churlish to call all our intellectual opponents illiberal and ourselves liberal, no offense need be taken if we divide for convenience sake, into Ancientists and Modernists while discussing the most vital points at issue be- tween debaters who need never be belligerents. Those who take the ancient position may well be called faithful sticklers for certain vi(nvs which have been handed down to them through many gener- 1 8 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. ations of venerated ancestors, and who are so con- servative by intellectual bent and sympathy that it is highly distressing to them to even contemplate a change from the positions which these venerated ancestors have, in their opinion, sanctified. Mod- ernists, on the other hand, have no such blind rever- ence for antiquity, not because of any lack of affection and respect for their progenitors, but be- cause of their intense conviction that days of old were no holier than to-day and ancient countries no more sacred than the lands we now inhabit. Very few indeed among us probably go the full length in either direction, for we almost invariably find ourselves at one time led by sentiment to revere, perhaps unduly, some romantic work of old, while at another time we are led by intellect to turn our backs upon the positions of our forefathers and boastfully declare that the achievements of the present day are far greater than those of any period in the past. Let us now endeavor to analyze quite fairly the claims of antiquity and the claims of modernity to our sympathy and love. Our affection for the antique is almost always based upon some endearing associations with the past that no amount of didactic reasoning ever suffices entirely to dispel. We cannot rationally analyze it any more than we can give a satisfactory analytical account of any other deeply rooted sentiment. Probably the best account of the great affection felt by so very many people for the Bible is contained in the beautiful song, "The Old Armchair." "A Mother sat there and that's why I love it, that old armchair." The singer goes on to tell us that that beloved mother i\ncient Mysteries and jNloclern Revelations. 19 ''turned from her bible to bless her child." This is quite sufficient to explain the deep fundamental hold which the ancient Bible continues to exert over the hearts and minds of quite a multitude of distinctly liberal thinkers who positively repudiate all attach- ment to traditional authority. For this reason the subject of biblical criticism is one which is necessar- ily attended by many sentimental difficulties which do not surround the candid investigation of any other literature in English speakir.g countries; for very few of us have any strongly sympathetic attachment to the Classics or to the Sacred Books of the East which the famous scholar, Max Muller, so finely edited ; but were we to find ourselves in some Asiatic country the state of thought would be exact- ly reversed, for there our Bible could easily be treated quite impartially while certain other Scrip- tures which are also made up of divers elements Americans are almost entirely ignorant, would be surrounded with t]ie same sort of sentimental halo with which we have encircled the Jewish and Chris- tian documents. Whenever any one of us can effec- tually dismiss this widely prevailing sentiment and examine the many distinct books which go to make up the compendious literature we have long been accustomed to designate Holy Bible, we find that very much that it contains is no holier, and no less holy, than important portions of many other litera- tures w^hich are also made up of divers elements brought together no one knows exactly when or how. We need not be either surprised or shocked to find that the same glorious ethical teachings which make many portions of our Bible magnificently superb 20 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. are couched in almost identical language with equally high and noble moral precepts enunciated elsewhere; nor need we experience the least aston- ishment when we begin to trace a subtle mystical element running through all the widely venerated Scriptures of the world. Let us now endeavor to place ourselves in the mental attitude of those who have never seen, until to-day, the Sacred Writings we are properly called upon to impartially examine, and let us be perfectly straightforward in dealing with these ancient re- cords, precisely as we ought to deal with the newest prose or poetry submitted for our consideration. Bible worshippers and Bible haters are alike fanatical, though their fanaticism is diametrically opposed; for no one can judge any matter im- partially if he approaches the study of it with his mind already made up to either glorify it or con- demn it. Whether the Bible can pass throi^gh the scathing ordeal of modern criticism safely and serenely, may not yet be fully decided, but it may be safely pre- dicted that the new aspects of criticism which are rapidly coming to the front will much more nearly agree with ancient kabbalistical interpretations than with the now almost antiquated iconoclastic method which was bound to prevail in the tempestuous days of the FreHch Revolution, when Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and many other brilliant intellectualists were seeking to prove that bibliolatry had long been the cause of an intellectual servitude which they felt it to be their special mission to overthrow. *'The Age of Reason" is a purely Deistic treatise which under- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 2i takes to prove that divine revelation never can de- pend upon either books or priests, for Nature itself is the revelator of God to Man, consequently we of to-day have quite as much opportunity for enjoying a divine revelation as had any ancient prophets who lived under somewhat different conditions from our- selves. The works of Swedenborg, which had been circulated many years before the writings of Paine were issued, were no more in harmony with any blind worship of the letter of the Bible than were the words of Paine, but Swedenborg wrote from an entirely different standpoint, and distinctly claimed to be a specially illuminated man, divinely influ- enced to restore to the world a knowledge of those interior senses of Sacred Scripture well understood by many peoples several thousand years ago, but at the time of his writings almost entirely unknown to scholarly theologians as well as to the great multitude of the relatively uninstructed. The modern Theistic position, rendered popular in New England by Theodore Parker in the middle of the nineteenth century, and since then widely accepted in nearly every section of the globe, does not differ radically from either the rationalistic position on the one hand or from the mystical on the other, provided that neither rationalist or mystic endeavors to set up any particular man or woman, or company of men and women, as infallible censors to whose dictation the multitude must bow. Every consistent Theist stoutly maintains that no one has any right to impose his or her opinions upon any other, seeing that no genuine human develop- ment is attainable apart from intellectual and moral 22 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. freedom; for if we simply bow to the alleged authority of others, be they either ecclesiastics or agnostics, we allow ourselves to suffer, to a large extent at least, the loss of that exercise of individual conscience and reason without which any real human development is impossible. It is, of course, quite true that some people are more highly enlight- ened than others, and are therefore quite capable of functioning in the capacity of teachers, but no arbitrary dictator is really a teacher, because if we accept the say-so of another without individual examination of what that other teaches, we posi- tively learn nothing, but place ourselves mentally and morally in the abject position of human parrots or phonographs. Now it is often argued that as there have always been Blessed Masters upon the earth who have communicated oracular teaching to their special' disciples, we can only obtain knowledge of important truth regarding spiritual matters provided we accept the presumably authoritative de- liverances of these heaven-inspired oracles, but such a statement is entirely ridiculous, because if we blindly accept something as true which we are quite unable to understand, we accept it only in an illusory manner, seeing that we do not feel within us any vital response to the outside appeal; therefore, we are only echoes and liable at any time to be switched off our present mental track and diverted into quite a foreign channel. Whoever feels any real confidence in the intrinsic and abiding value of the Bible must be strangely inconsistent if he is afraid that a perfectly honest and altogether impartial examination of the sacred Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 23 text can ever weaken its hold upon the hearts and minds of fearless truthseekers ; but if anyone secret- ly entertains serious misgivings as to the ability of the Bible to withstand whatever attacks may be made upon it, he surely confesses his own serious doubt as to the real sacredness of the Scripture he ostensibly endeavors to uphold. The spirit of frank investigation is the only spirit worthy of esteem, and whatever cannot stand the searchlight of such investigation as this spirit necessitates and prompts, must in the nature of things soon come to be regarded as far more of a human fetish than divine revelation. It is certainly true that a superficial view of any collection of Sacred Writings reveals them as of very unequal value and abounding in traces of the particular errors common to the places and periods when and where they were produced. It is, however, quite reasonable, when taking into account the circum- stances of their production, to explain these seem- ing discrepancies and traces of unreliability not so much to lack of wisdom or inspiration on the part of the authors as to the actual need for appealing to humanity in a language not far removed from the average comprehension of ordinary men and women, while at the same time conveying an inter- ior meaning to all who can read below the surface by means of the employment of a system of parable or metaphor which is, to this very day, the common practice of all teachers in the East. We are now confronted with the task of examin- ing the Hebrew and Greek records which constitute our Bible in the light of this twofold method, — the 24 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. rationalistic and the mystical, — the former having reference to the outward text, the latter to the inter- ior intention of those who employed it for the express purpose of handing down through succeed- ing ages certain vital truths which do not essentially vary, no matter how widely outward circumstances may change. Probably no intelligent person to-day believes that any great moral purpose can be served by simply studying ancient history and committing to memory the names of certain patriarchs whose general character was certainly not outwardly in all cases of the highest stamp. Then again we have, no definite assurance that any event occurred exactly as it is described in the external narrative. But when we come to regard these personages and incidents as far more than simply historical, we find them all capable of conveying important lessons to us to-day. The geographical and chrono- logical elements in the Bible may well be regarded as extremely doubtful, but only in the sense that we need not look for local and historical exactitude in a great novel, a mighty poem or an elevating play, into which the names of certain persons and places have been freely introduced, but chiefly with dramatic motive — i. e., for the sake of making the teaching conveyed stand out boldly before the eye of the reader or the ear of the listener as it could not stand were it not for this vivid external drap- ery. When we read Shakespeare we need not care whether Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or Timon of Athens were or were not actual historical persons. Somebody lived in Denmark and somebody lived Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 25 in Greece during those periods to which the plays incidentally refer, but the object of these great dramas is certainly widely different from that of a school history, the avowed object of which is simply to acquaint the students with what actually occurred in certain countries at certain times. All history is valuable provided we learn the lesson that it is capable of conveying to us; but the distinctive value of a work of art, written with the sole intention of embodying important moral teach- ing in attractive outward form, is far higher than that of any work which is undertaken from the standpoint of the historian simply. We are all familiar to-day with the extreme doubt which is often expressed in learned circles concerning the authorship of every great literary classic. The plays of Shakespeare have been attrib- uted to Bacon, while the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer have often been tentatively referred to imknown authorship, but no caviling as to authorship can ever detract one iota from tlie intrinsic merit of the suublime poetry thus skeptically dealt with, for it does not make any real difference to us to know or not to know who wrote a certain book or when or where it was written, seeing that the only great value of any literary production, which aims at ele- vating the moral tone of humanity, consists in the appeal it makes to our inherent moral instincts, which can usually be reached by fear if we are in an undeveloped and almost savage mental condition, but only by veneration and love if we are more highly evolved intellectually. It is now not uncommon to find gifted teachers of 26 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. mental science and moral philosophy entirely ignor- ing the simply historical elements in ancient Scriptures during the course of Bible lessons, which they deliver with the one intention of aiding their students to overcome diverse limitations and prove themselves superior to the weaknesses and tempta- tions which surround us in the modern world. We need not wonder that this method of teaching is sometimes looked upon by rationalists as unwar- ranted and by extreme conservatives as heretical, but a little sober thinking will soon convince us that we have all a perfect right to make the most prac- tical use we possibly can of the world's most widely circulating religious literature. Nothing can be further from the truth than to declare that the Bible in these days is not read as much as formerly, though it is certainly the case that it is not read so exclusively, and it is being read far more critically. Thi^ change of attitude toward the venerable book is quite inevitable when we take into account the enormous literary output of the present day and the resolute determination on the part of modern scholars to ventilate as widely as possible the results of recent criticism. We can quite sympathize with all persons who object to the Bible being read in public schools as a book entirely different from all other books, alleged to contain a divine revelation which no other literature can hold, for such a claim for a particular volume is clearly an attempt on the part of Bible worshipers to compel many of their fellow-citizens who do not share their views to submit the whole of the rising generation to a kind of course in dogmatic theology, which while it may Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 27 meet with the complete approval of some parents and guardians, is thoroughly distasteful to others Were the Bible placed J|pn ^ ^evel with other avowedly Sacred Books^nc''^^ Aed with honest impartiality, there could be ncr objection to select- ing from it for school reading many noble passages, but the volume as a whole is far too obscure in many places, and it also deals with too many subjects unfit to be discussed by children of school age, to be placed in their hands either as a complete divine revelation or as a standard text book of faith and morals which they are expected to peruse from Genesis to Revelation. We know well enough that there are very many beautiful stories in the Bible which are well adapted to childish comprehension, and which by their dramatic intensity make a strong and altogether salutary appeal to juvenile imagin- ation. Such tales could profitably be included in a judiciously compiled selection from many venerable writings where they would stand side by side with similar stories taken from other Scriptures: But admirable though such a selection from the various Sacred Books of the world might be, such a volume could never receive the sanction of those exclusiv- ists who have set their faces determinedly against the study of comparative religion, unless it be so conducted as to put their own system in the most favorable light possible, while all other systems must be relegated to the shades of at least semi-darkness When it was seriously proposed to Mrs. Annie Besant that she should compile such a book as we are now advocating, she very frankly informed her friends that she could compile it without much diffi- 28 Ancient Mysteries and^ Modern Revelations. culty, but she saw liftle chance of its being accepted after she had written it, in those particular places into which her frcnch'-w^e most desirous of intro- ducing it. Anytjie red^^an or woman who has traveled widely afid Studied deeply might gather together, without any onerous labor, a large amount of valuable matter from the immense bulk of the world's sacred literature, and a very great good service could be rendered thereby to the cause of mutual understanding between the representatives of different religious systems, but though such a result after its accomplishment could only be bene- ficial in the long run, it could not be brought about at present on any extended scale without arousing ferocious controversy, by reason of the enthusiastic self-conceit which we find manifested by pro- fessedly orthodox advocates of every religious system beneath the sun. Nothing seems more diffi- cult than for those who profess to admire and fully accept the most exquisite portions of their own beloved Bible to act as though its finest inculcations were really true, for if they would but admit what their greatest prophets and apostles have clearly stated, they would immediately consent to trace divine revelation impartially through the myriad channels along which it has been flowing without cessation through all the ages. Could we all agree to dispense entirely with both jealousy and prejudice it would not be long before we could all unite to form a worldwide Study Class, in which all vener- ated Scriptures could be employed and quoted side by side in such a manner as to greatly and quickly help forward that mighty spiritual movement look- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 29 ing toward the establishment and maintenance of universal Peace which we are assured by all true Theosophists, and all other workers for the unifi- cation of humanity, is the one movement beyond all others most calculated to enable all of us to practically realize the divine origin and constitution of our common humanity. Nothing can surely be more detrimental to the interests of universal peace than an arrogant belief that some one nation has been appointed sole cus- todian of celestial verities, for such a claim made by any body of people inevitably inclines them to an overweening sense of their own importance coupled with a more or less contemptuous attitude toward alKthe rest of humanity. "Poor benighted heathen," is a phrase we often hear at missionary meetings, not simply applied to certain benighted elements in any given population, but indiscrimin- ately used to designate all non-christian peoples regardless of their intelligence or moral excellence. The only reason given for speaking of them thus is because they have never seen our Bible, or accepted our particular views of religion, though in many cases they have actually embraced the identical teachings which we frequently declare are the crowning glory of our vastly superior civiliza- tion. Were we to really understand the Scriptures of those so-called "heathen" nations, we should find in them very much to admire, though also much to criticize, but were they fairly examined we should soon discover that their worst passages are no worse than the worst in our own Bible, and even those are not bad at all if we regard them as containing some 30 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. interior meaning which lies far below the surface of their letter. No intelligent person can possibly believe that any true God ever told people through any instrumentality whatever to slaughter hosts of innocent women and children; therefore, whenever we read that such commands were given from God, we may be quite sure either that the record is false or that it is conveyed in mystical language. We can accept which alternative we please, provided we adopt the same method of interpretation when deal- ing with various records ; but in no case can we have the right to assume that what is right when contained in one Bible is wrong when found in another. Bibles in all cases possess some amazing element of vitality which has enabled them so far t© withstand all the censure which has been brought against them that they go on living despite all efforts made to crush them. This may be due to the simple fact that they contain so much truth, intermingled with a large amount of error, that that truth keeps them alive while the error has a tendency to work their destruction, or we may go so far as to believe that in all cases they are portions of some great uni- versal literature which owes its value, as well as its enduring character, to the spiritual element which is its permanent soul, and which enjoys immortal life though outward bodies may be far from cap- able of enduring everlastingly. Whichever view we take we must be extremely careful not to indulge in any special pleading for our own Bible, while holding up to scorn or ridicule the equally venerated Scriptures of hundreds of millions of our fellow beings; and when we come Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 31 to deal with the subject of idolatry we must again be equally careful to avoid the very common error of declaring that our own images represent certain spiritual truths, and are only regarded by those who honor them as emblems or symbols, while we most unjustly infer that other images in other parts of the world are actually "false gods" of wood and stone which the "wretched heathen" worship be- cause they are destitute of all genuine spiritual illumination. It is quite pardonable that Europeans and Americans should, for the most part, be largely ignorant of Oriental faith and worship, but if that be so, surely some becoming modesty should be exercised and we should refrain from passing judg- ment where our knowledge is so extremely small. We need not claim to endorse or advocate doctrines and practices with which we are unfamiliar, but we may well be reticent concerning them, and were a wise reticence generalyy observed, we should enjoy the advantage of a total absence of all ill-feeling toward our Asiatic neighbors and we should also be quite open to learn from them as they may also be open to learn from us concerning spiritual realities. CHAPTER II. RIVERS OF UFE OR FAITHS OF MAN IN ALL LANDS. A very remarkable Chart, intended to describe the progress of rehgious ideas and varying forms of worship among all nations, was long ago issued by Major General Forlong, by means of which he traced out with considerable clearness what he be- lieved to be the stream of human religious progress from as far back as 10,000 B. C. The earliest forms of worship included the Tree and the Serpent as objects of world-wide veneration, and with these emblems were associated all the symbols connected with Phallic worship. It is quite easy to trace in these primitive and wide-spread emblems the natural tendency of humanity to deify all those agencies through which the stream of life is constantly flow- ing from some mysterious unseen fountain-head into manifold manifest exterior expressions. Ac- cording to Forlong's calculations the worship of Fire somewhat preceded the adoration of the sun, and these two forms of closely related worship he traces back to about 6,000 B. C. Regarding the chart carefully we soon become familiar with many interblending lines showing how Sun worship, Tree worship and Serpent worship were so inter- blended as to have been well-nigh, if not entirely, Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 33 inseparable. Ancestor worship, according to this reckoning, dates back only to about 3,500 B. C , and seems to have immediately followed the more ancient Egyptian Sacred Ritual which paid special homage to all phases of creative fertility. Moun- tain worship is still more recent and is said to have prevailed everywhere at the time assigned by Jewish tradition to the giving of the Law from Sinai, and immediately after that period Animal worship be- came everywhere prevalent. This seems to be in strict accord with the narrative in Exodus which in- forms us that the people worshiped the golden calf after the Law had been revealed to them from the mountain top, and we may also well believe that the sacredness of mountains appealed especially to men of prophetic type, while animal worship was the common practice of the unenlightened. We can never entirely get away from these forms of worship which grow up instinctively and are there- fore no more artificial products than are any other spontaneous natural productions. We have all some instinct of veneration within us which in its earlier and less refined condition is sure to lead us to pay extravagant homage to those external objects which most naturally and powerfully seize hold upon our imagination and cause us, by their unique impress- iveness, to regard them as divine agents in more than ordinary degree. This consideration alone may lead us far on the highly desirable road of kindly consideration for the many aspects of faith and forms of worship which have survived -unto this day, and which seem- ingly satisfy, in some considerable measure, the 34 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. religious aspirations of multitudes of our contem- poraries. Though the very highest idea of Deity which the human mind seems capable of entertaining is well expressed in the majestic words ''God is Spirit and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," what constitutes spirit, and how spiritual worship may be offered, is not usually very clear to the average intellect, hence men have always devised some concrete figures which they have placed before them, not intending thereby to represent Deity in fullness, but only to assist them in concentrating their attention upon some venerated object which to their minds clothes or embodies at least some special divine attribute which they most admire and which they most desire to share. Modern scholarship universally inclines to an acceptance of the thoroughly reasonable proposition that beyond all localized and limited divinities the great nations of antiquity acknowledged and vener- ated one Supreme Being whose attributes were .variously embodied in multitudes of subordinate divinities, and though it is the proud boast of the most advanced nations in the modern world that they acknowledge only one God as the proper object of human worship, we can hardly fail to recognize a very definite continuation of ancient Paganism in modern Christianity. By this declaration we are not intending to infer anything disrespectful to the Christian system, though we cannot admit that in its present form it is other than hybrid. Primitive Christianity may have originated with some definite determination on the part of a few intensely zealous men and women to carry into effect the exact teach- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 35 ings of a great Master whom they desired implicitly to follow, but no student of Christian history can fail to note that very soon indeed the early Church began to associate itself with the civil power of the Roman Empire, and from the moment it did so it must have ceased to preserve, even in semblance, its primitive simplicity. All the great religions of the world appear to have originated with some great inspiration received through some illustrious Founder, whose followers very soon began to drift away from the primal purity of the system estab- lished by the Founder, and in so doing they invari- ably committed themselves to an endorsement of prevailing ideas and customs, which had already taken so firm a hold upon the minds of the great bulk of the populace where the new religion was introduced, that a formulated system soon grew up and flourished which was a compromise between the new revelation and the older hierarchy. We can readily see traces of this blending of new and old in every Bible we may be called upon to study, and the fact of its universality should dispose us to take a kindly as well as a rational view alike of its origin and purpose. Though worship of external objects, no matter how majestic and sublime, must be ultimately superseded by a purely spiritual form of adoration, we can clearly see that in the course of human conscious evolution lower concepts of Deity must of necessity precede higher ones, and for this reason we should be ever ready to put the most favorable construction possible upon ancient and modern religious beliefs and usages alike. It is a great, though a very common, error to suppose that 36 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. so eminently rational and charitable a view means indifference to all essentials of faith or doctrine, for such is surely not the case. The most thor- oughly sympathetic view of all religious systems is the one always taken by the most thoroughly devout and conscientious upholders of those essen- tial and fundamental verities, which an impartial investigation of Comparative Religion can only serve to endear more and more to the hearts and minds of all who are liberal and intelligent enough to appreciate, in some vital manner, the splendid words attributed to the Apostle Paul, "GOD has never left Himself without witness." As we trace the widely spreading boughs of Forlong's imaginary tree, and seek to appreciate the manifest significance of its widely ramifying branches, we cannot fail to note how many strange beliefs and practices are often marvellously interlinked. Human progress in civilization seems always to have proceeded along a circuitous path; never does it seem to have gone straight forward. This fact must be well digested before we can possibly estimate truly the career of religious ideas and ceremonies through centuries and milleniums. It has long been a gross mistake, and a fatal error, to suppose that one religious system has necessarily borrowed from another be- cause we can trace extremely close resemblances in many instances between one system and another. This close relationship both in doctrine and cere- monial by no means necessarily proves anything more or other than that different peoples in differ- ent countries may have simulanteously reached an almost identical altitude of mental, moral, and spirit- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 37 ual attainment. It is clearly evident that between five and six centuries prior to the commencement of the Christian Dispensation a mighty spiritual, intel- lectual and moral wave of inspiration and illumina- tion was sweeping voluminously over the Earth, lav- ing Europe, Asia, and the Northern Coast of Africa with its effulgence. Then were the days of the latest of the Buddhas in India, of Confucius, the eminent moral philosopher, and of Laotze, the pro- found Mystic, in China; also of the greatest of the Philosophers in Greece. How came it about, we may well enquire, that so many illustrious lights were shining contemporaneously in different sec- tions of the world? Surely there are mental, moral, and spiritual tides in the history of Human- ity which have their periodic ebb and flow as surely as have the tides of oceans, which most of us have learned to trace. To ascertain the cause and periodicity of these mysterious Psychic Tidal Waves may yet be well within our average power, but up to the present the ability to do this has been claimed as an exclusive possession of certain highly trained or well developed Adepts or Initiates, who can peer within the veil of mystery which has for ages shrouded the inner sanctuaries from the gaze of all the uninitiated. A mighty question .is now agitating the minds of rapidly increasing multitudes, viz., Has the time now come for the great unveiling long predicted, and eagerly anticipated by enquiring throngs to-day? The signs are manifold, and they are rapidly accumulating, that we are on the immediate verge of a new Cycle in human history. To quote the language of Forlong, "There may be 38 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. observed from the synchronizing of the history of faiths a remarkable tidal wave of intensity which seems to acutely affect the race physically and ment- ally and with remarkable regularity every six hun- dred to six hundred and fifty years, reminding us of the Sothic and other cycles, but especially of the mystical phoenix or Solar eras of Egypt and the East. The ebb and flow of this tide is shown on the chart by light broad bands embracing a width of one hundred years." With the beginning of the Christian era we notice a determined effort to unify, as far as possible, every system older than Christianity. This tend- ency is so familiar to all students of the Fathers of the early Church, that it seems almost incredible that any graduate from a well equipped divinity college can be ignorant of the fact that what he has been taught to call Christianity is both a compound and a continuation of many ancient faiths and cere- monies; but though this is unmistakably the case we are not thereby justified in characterizing Christianity or the New Testament as in any sense fraudulent, though that serious charge is often brought by vigorous iconoclasts, who can readily trace existing parallels but seem unable to interpret their real significance. The publishers of Forlong's chart were very careful to publish in connection with it the thoroughly truthful statement that it is neither orthodox or heterodox but simply chrono- logical, therefore suitable for general use in all schools where classics are taught; but though it is simply historical in its manifest design, no one who peruses it thoughtfully can fail to trace its distinctly Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 39 universal implications. Its chief object is pro- fessedly to exhibit a gradual evolution of ideas from rude material and elemental symbolism to abstract spiritual conceptions. Several colors are employed, each one denoting some great leading idea which, though long continuing, tends to diverge and at length become lost in some wider common stream. The streams are called merely ''Lines of Thought," neither national nor ethnographical in their arrange- ment, for certain streams of tendency are steadfast while all religious systems are progressive, in conse- quence of the fact that human nature progresses and one generation of men and women will inevit- ably put some new construction upon doctrines and ceremonies alike, by no means in strict accordance with the views taken by their predecessors in the same communion. We are altogether too much inclined to speak of people as Jews, Christians, or Mohammedans, as though such broad designations completely describe as well as effectively label them ; but such a mistaken inference can never hold sway over the minds of soberly thoughtful people, seeing that nothing can be more self evident than that there are as many varieties of Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammed- ism, for example, as there are distinctive types of people professing each of these varied systems of religious thought and practice. We are often apt to think that should we travel in Eastern Asia and mingle freely with Brahmins, Buddhists and Parsees, we should find certain rigid kinds of people professing certain definite doctrines and observing certain ancient and unvarying cere- 40 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. monies with scarcely anything to distinguish one individual from another among professors of a certain creed. This might prove true, to some ex- tent at least, were we to associate exclusively with the uneducated and largely unthinking rank and file of some specific population, but should we enlarge the scope of our acquaintance, till it included the' best educated and most highly representative mem- bers of any Oriental community, we should soon dis- cover quite as wide a dissimilarity of thought and practice as we are ever likely to encounter in the West. That fertile author, James Freeman Clarke, whose splendid text book, ''Ten Great Religions," is a most valuable mine of rich historical information, often took occasion to remind his hearers, in the course of his always instructive sermons, that we greatly need to remember that though institutions seemingly remain permanent, with their confessions of faith unchanged and their ceremony unaltered, yet because the living members of those institutions are not the men and women of past centuries, we have no right or reason to expect that the personal conduct of any body of people to-day will necessar- ily be identical with the behavior of the men and women who bore the same distinctive titles in the past. This is, of course, self -evidently true, but as every organization extant to-day contains many widely diversified elements, so was it in even the distant past; consequently the more thoroughly we study history the more clearly convinced do we become that there never was a timer when all the professors of a distinctive creed came up to a uni- form standard of either intellectuality or morality. Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 41 Quite recently the beatification of Jeanne D'Arc, the Maid of Orleans, by the Church of Rome has called much attention to two distinctly separate aspects of the attitude of that Church to the heroic girl who was indeed a deliverer of France, and then a Martyr through the perfidy of the very King and his attendants who owed their exaltation and their safety to the brave inspired damsel without whose valiant leadership the French Army of that period could never have been victorious. We often hear it said that the Church burnt this maiden as a witch a few hundred years ago and now enthrones her statue above its altars as an object of veneration for the faithful, while priests call upon their people to invoke the intercession of the very girl who was so bitterly denounced and cruelly masacred in a by-gone century. This statement is by no means altogether true, for while it may be a historic fact that those particular persons who put the maiden to death professed the Roman Catholic faith, we cannot learn from any reliable historian that the high dignitaries of the Church as a whole were in any way concerned with her unjust martyr- dom. Personal jealousy and other equally base motives animating the corrupt minds of certain men in authority at the time of her condemnation, were the direct external causes of the unjust sentence passed upon her; it is not therefore true to relate that a great Church as a whole condemned the Maid of Orleans in one century and canonized her in another, but it is a fact that the general temper of these times is less barbaric than that of four or five hundred years ago. Yet even now it 42 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. does not seem impossible that harsh injustice might be meted out to some modern deliverer of France, or any other land, were corrupt men to be in power and in a position to cast a deciding vote as to the fate of a new emancipator. We can all understand what Felix Adler, Presi- dent of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, meant when he gave a book the title of ''Deed vs. Creed," though that saying cannot always be en- dorsed at its full face value. What Dr. Adler clearly intended to convey was that good deeds can be performed regardless of creed, and any sort of creed can be intellectually maintained regardless of the behavior of its advocates. We sometimes hear it said that it is of no consequence what we believe provided we live good lives; this is a very shrewd saying requiring very close examination, by reason of the fact that it seems to contain a sort of catch which, however, we soon discover when we pene- trate below the surface of its obvious letter. Much good was undoubtedly done some years ago through the columns of the London Daily Telegraph by the publication day after day, for several months, of numerous letters from all conceivable varieties of scribes in answer to the query, Do we Believe? "Of course we all believe something," is the only possible general answer which can be given to this question, but two other inquiries directly follow it, What do we Believe? and. Why do we Believe what we Believe? to which a third may be added, What Influence does our Belief exert over our Conduct? To answer these four queries, not merely to discuss the first in the series, must be the work of the Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 43 philosophic student, and it will surely not take us very long to make the uncomplimentary discovery that our average beliefs are largely due to nothing else than blind unreasoning compliance with ac- cepted notions entertained by a large majority of persons among whom we have been brought up. Such beliefs cannot well be vital; they are usually little if any better than intellectual lumber, a kind of mental furniture which we take for granted because we have been accustomed to seeing it in our surroundings from our early childhood. Once we begin to think seriously upon the nature and import of belief, we find that our beliefs, if they are in any sense living, cannot be entirely unimportant, be- cause they always do exercise a considerable amount of influence upon our actual life. We cannot really believe in an angry God or in useless and endless misery without being to some extent demoralized thereby; such beliefs, therefore, are decidedly dangerous in their inevitable tendency, because if they are seriously entertained, or even passively accepted, their necessary tendency is to brutalize instead of humanize those who hold them. When, on the other hand, we really believe in a God of love and wisdom, who is in essence entirely benefi- cent, also in the remedial nature of all cliastise- ment involving suffering both here and here- after, such a conception must have a tendency to ennoble and purify our own attitude toward our fellow beings. In all our arguments in favor of simple Theism as immeasurably superior to every narrower and cruder faith, we base our claim for its reasonableness and goodness, not upon any meta- 44 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. physical subtlety, but upon the appeal it makes to all the sweetest and noblest sentiments in our common human nature. People must be dense in- deed if they cannot see that a higher idea of divine government, extending throughout the universe, must exert a better influence upon humanity at large than can any lower concept. Tracing, as far as we are able, the career of the God idea in history, we do not find so much of widely separated streams of thought as we trace a blended current, due to the fact that the greatest teachers of humanity have appeared and worked among all conditions of human development. To go no further back than the period referred to in the Christian Gospels we are told that a great spiritual luminary blazes forth in the Roman Em- pire, of which Judea is then a province. This spiritual light shines freely for all and is poetically designated "the Sun of Righteousness arisen with healing in its wings," a prophetic metaphor which clearly gives evidence that the disciples of a great Master believed his mission to be entirely universal in its intent. So it consistently follows that evan- gelists record that this great teacher commissions his emissaries to go forth as ambassadors into all nations proclaiming good news, or joyful tidings, to every creature. But how do the same evangelists tell us that this Master and his teachings were re- ceived ? Multitudes at times flocked to his standard and crowds of common people heard him gladly, but there were also many who regarded him as a sor- cerer, or as an imposter, and stirred up a conspiracy against him, even as certain vicious elements in Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 45 Greek society at an earlier day had branded Socrates a foe to religion and virtue and an enemy of the State worthy only of banishment or death. We may well believe that some people both in Greece and in Palestine were actually sincere in their be nighed protests against the life and teachings of the great teachers whom they hounded out of physical existence, but in all probability the great majority of those who joined in the clamor for the removal of those who were continually doing good were actuated by far from honorable motives, foremost among which was the constant fear that their own temporal power, which they knew they held un- justly, would soon be wrested from their grasp did they allow a high moral philosophy to win increas- ing triumphs in lands which they desired unright- eously to govern. But be this as it may, it is not possible that a low type of intellect can ever grasp a very high idea of either divine or human govern- ment; thus it often happens that quite sincere, but undeveloped, natures believe that harsh coercive measures are essential to the welfare of the Family and of the State, therefore, from their standpoint, those who teach the Law of Love and adopt a higher policy than that of warfare are looked upon as dangerous fanatics who, if their influence should greatly spread, would quickly undermine and over- throw the safeguards of society. Thos€ who entertain such views, and we have some such human fossils in our midst to-day, cannot see anything but a dangerous menace to morality in the breaking up of the old traditions to which they slavishly adhere, fearing that if these be even weakened a deluge of 46 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. vice and anarchy will speedily overwhelm the earth. Many preachers who represent the extreme of sur- viving religious orthodoxy express not the slightest hesitancy in declaring that apart from some element of dogmatic theological teaching interfused, all advance in secular education must eventually result in weakening instead of strengthening the ramparts of morality. This contention, though ultimately unsound, com- mends itself with easy readiness to the minds of timid and highly emotional people who have never sought to soberly sift the groundworks of morality. Dogmatic theology has long been so closely asso- ciated with moral training in the minds of large rural populations in many countries that it must be diffi- cult for many parents, who belong to an old regime, to understand the attitude of the Ethical Culturists of the present day, and some show of reasonable- ness attaches to their fears because of the fact that during a transition period like the present, when an impulsive rising generation breaks away from time- honored moorings it is very likely to plunge un- thinkingly into an abyss of folly from which it can only be recovered through the agency of a wiser mode of treatment than is yet widely com- prehended by the masses. It is, hovvever, only fair to state that the present generation is guilty of no crimes or follies which were not often perpetrated in the so-called "good old days" when the parson was supreme in the village, the Bible regularly read, and family prayer punctuallv offered. There are evidently two causes for modern religious and social unrest; one is unmistakably due to the spirit of the Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 47 age, which no attempt to quench can prove success- ful ; the other proceeds from a certain careless impetuosity, begotten of that very restraint which so many short-sighted persons believe to be the only safeguard of youth and upholder of morality. Take us as a whole we are undoubtedly deeper and more serious thinkers than were our forefathers, though we may not have among us any very large number of particularly eminent men and women ; but this seeming absence of distinguished geniuses may be fairly attributed to the causes which Bulwer Lytton in his famous novel, ''The Coming Race," says the .Vril-Ya gave for the absence of distinguished genius in that mysterious subterranean world into which that highly romantic author has introduced his often awestruck readers. Where the general average of intelligence is high we cannot reasonably expect that lofty mental attainments will stand out so conspicuously as where it is comparatively low; likewise where the general moral attitude is fairly lofty we seldom pause to contemplate with great esteem some distinguished moral hero; and again we must not lose sight of the fact that true and lasting morality can never be secured where in- dividuality is suppressed and the people cowed into submission by threats of terrific punishment if they dare to disobey the mandates of their commanding officers. We are certainly nearer to the long pre- dicted Golden Age than we have ever been before. But what is really meant by this romantic figure of speech? we may well enquire. An age in which literal gold is worshiped, as though it were veritable Deity, must ever be an age of dire calamity, and 48 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. such it has ever proved whenever and wherever this popular idol has been enthroned for adoration. Gold in the Alchemical sense means something far different indeed from any precious material metal, though it can scarcely be seriously disputed among students of Alchemistic Philosophy that all its chief exponents have admitted the possibility of the literal transmutation of baser into superior metals, and all eventually into gold. The symbolic mention of gold, however, directs our thoughts far away from all external treasures and centers them upon a celestial inheritance, in comparison with which all worldly possessions must sink into utter insignifi- cance; therefore we are perpetually assured by Mystics of every rank and name, that the true object of Alchemical research is the regeneration of individual human beings immediately, and ulti- mately of the entire Human Race. "I believe in the resurrection of the Body and in the Life Ever- lasting," originally meant far more than it means to the average Creed-reciter of to-day, who is usually one who scarcely seeks to find any interior meaning in the mighty mystic words which rise so glibly to the lips of all who have simply learned to utter published phrases. In like manner Baptis- mal Regeneration is taken only as to its most external garb, when in reality it has true reference to that marvel of interior transformation which it has always been the object of the Mysteries to progressively unveil. The first body to be con- sidered when we are dealing with Mystic Initiation is, of course, the inner body of the Neophyte or Candidate, one who is sometimes termed a Cate* Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 49 chumen; but as no selfish desire for exclusive individual , salvation or enligTitenment can ever be approved spiritually, it has always been the open as well as the private teaching of real Initiates that Social Regeneration is the great intent of all true Mystic Schools. Turning again to Forlong's Chart for illustrative examples, we find the colors employed are Red, Blue, Green, Pink, Brown, Violet and Yellow. Worship of Fetiches is marked at the very begin- ning of the record and takes historic rank with Charms and Amulets, which were venerated every- where in the remotest ages of which we possess any definite or authentic record. Three quite dis- tinct, but for long contemporary, objects of world- wide veneration were the Tree, pictured appropri- ately in green; the Lingam and Yoni, sacred to Phallic Faiths, portrayed in yellow ; and the Serpent, portrayed in brown, doubtless to suggest the earth on which the serpent moves. These three especially ancient Emblems all interblend and at length become merged, or at least united, in the Sacred Ritual of ancient Egypt, accounts of which are now quite eas- ily procurable. About 3000 B. C, according to For- long's reckoning, there were great wars between Jovites and Titanites and between Solar and Lunar worshipers. At this distance of time it is not necessary to attempt to enter elaborately into the causes and nature of these conflicts, but it does certainly appear that the position of the opposite sexes, as objects of veneration, was often a burning point of controversy in olden times. With recent dissertations concerning Atlantis the 50 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. antiquity of ancient Faiths seems much greater than before that once mighty submerged Island-continent became a subject of popular research, as it had not become when Forlong's Chart was originally issued, but though LePlongeon and other indefatigable students of antiquity quite clearly trace all Oriental and Occidental beliefs and practices to their com- mon home in Atlantis, it is highly probable that the dispersion of religious systems rapidly spread at the time of the breaking up of that mysterious land, the last remnants of which are said to have finally collapsed very nearly 10,000 years before the com- mencement of the Christian Era. This great event may well account for the exist- ence of a specific traceable chronology carrying us back to 10,000 B. C, but no further. Definite and simple Theism, within the present historic period (traced in vivid red on Forlong's Chart) is not made to appear earlier than 2,400 B. C. Intensely interesting, and instructive also, though these graphically formulated statements prove there must always be some doubt as to precise historic accuracy, though none whatever as to the real prevalence of different Religious Systems and very little as to the effect which each is logically calculated to exert upon its faithful devotees. This point conceded, we must be prepared to go a definite step further, and consider that all Systems have their letter and their spirit, and while the letter is always crude, and sometimes even barbaric, the spirit is pure and gentle, reminding us of nuts, which have hard indigestible exterior shells while they are inwardly delicious and nutritious. Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 51 ''The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," is ndt a text that can apply alone to the Mosaic Law, or to any other portions of the Bible of the Jew and of the Christian; it is applicable to every record accounted sacred by any section of mankind. Is there then no place remaining in these modern days for missionary enterprise? There is a vast new field opening for missionary endeavor, but the coming missionary must be a man or woman widely awake to the actual needs of our present humanity, which greatly needs convincing of the unity of all religious systems at their core. The letter of all systems is in process of sure disintegration and in this dis- solving process many observers think they see the growing disappearance of religion itself from earth In this surmise they must soon find themselves mistaken, for actual discovery of the roots of all religious trees is leading multitudes to accept, not Adieism but Theosophy. Annie Besant is not tlie only brilliant worker in the ranks of Atheistic propaganda who has discovered its pitiful unsatis- factoriness, though she has proved an exceptionally prominent and influential example in this connec- tion. Prof. Charles Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University, has undoubtedly, to some ex- tent, correctly outlined the religion of the future, but that religion may have many other excellent aspects besides those which this kindl}^ veteran educator has vigorously emphasized. The religion of the future is certainly in the making, and though it can be neither wished nor expected that it will be an entirely new production, it is not unduly optimistic or presumptuous to predict that it will contain all 52 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. that is worth preserving in the heritages we have •gathered from the past, but as new times require new appHcations of eternal verities, we must not imagine that anything worth preserving is being swept away because old truth is being freshly gar- mented and the present generation is voicing the Wisdom of the Ages in a language of its own. CHAPTER III. ANCIENT AND MODE:rN IDEAS OF REVEI.ATION. ITS SOURCES AND AGENCIES. Though the true meaning of a revelation is simply a disclosure this obviously simple word has long been one to conjure with, and it is still to-day a veritable storm-center wherever theological matters ar^ discussed. Scientifically, however, the word presents no difficulties, for in scientific circles it is always used as the synoynm of discovery. We may truly say that we receive a revelation of the heavens when we gaze through telescopes into the midnight skies and trace the process of the constellations, but no one imagines for an instant that the stars are de- liberately showing themselves to astronomers and hiding their faces from all other persons. But it remains a fact that certain astronomers actually see far more of the heavenly bodies than is beheld by the general bulk of any population. Let us apply this simple illustration to those great seers or prophets, who may well be termed the spiritual star-gazers of our race. Such men and women are figuratively represented as climbing to the tops of mountains, and delving into caves of the earth and clefts of rocks, just as astronomers 53 54 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. and geologists literally ascend mountain eminences, and dive into the depths of the crust of the planet, that they may in the one case have a wider view of the sky and in the other a bettre opportunity to examine the layers or strata of the globe. We know quite well that certain places are particularly favorable for astronomical observations; among these deep wells have always occupied a foremost place, for we can see the stars at midday if we descend into a well and at night-time we can only have a wide sweep of the heavens if we plant our observatories on lofty heights. Natural similitudes have always been employed by bards or psalmists to describe their realization of the neailhess of the spiritual universe, which does indeed interpenetrate as well as encircle all material orbs. The nineteenth psalm, and some majestic portions of the Book of Job, won the admiration of Thomas Paine, who quotes some splendid passages in his **Age of Reason," in which much controverted volume he levels biting sarcasm at many other portions of the Bible, which he deems entirely inconsistent with the glorious conception of the Supreme Being set forth in the quotations he admires. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork," is a superb tribute to its author'^ sub- lime idea of Nature, and yet more ddes it testify to his realization of human ability to scan the heavens and read, in their outspread beauties, the caligraphy of the Almighty. The cattle in the fields are just as near the sky as the shepherd who is tending his flocks on the same pasture ground, but we have no reason to suppose that sheep or oxen Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 55 contemplate the heavens as did the shepherd king of ancient Israel, and we have no ground for surmising that even the average human traveler who ascends to the summit of some lofty peak has anything like the same idea of the starlit skies as those Magi or Wise Men of ancient Persia or Chaldea, who are said to have discovered the Star of Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus. Every age has had, and the present undoubtedly has, its particularly earnest and qualified inspectors of the widely open book of natural revelation, which is never for an instant closed except in the face of ignorance and indifference. Were we all equally open-eyed and open-minded we should all receive an equal revela- tion, for Nature holds no secrets shut away from some, which are purposely revealed to others. Who, let us ask, were those prophets of old, who saw and heard so much more of the ways of Deity than did the hosts of their contemporaries, to whom they al- ways appear as almost unfathomable enigmas, strange beings like ''super-men," to be eitlier blindly venerated or ruthlessly persecuted, according to the temper of those among whom they mingled. These mystic visionaries, and stalwart champions of right- eousness, have ever been the glory of the lands on which they have set foot, and their record is handed down through successive centuries and milleniums as bearing special witness to divine interposition in the ordinary affairs of men. But science, perhaps, will not allow us to use that word interposition, see- ing that it gives color to a belief very much at vari- ance with general scientific reasoning; let us then in- terpret the history of those romantic dwellers on the 56 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. borders of the unseen universe in reasonable terms, easily understood by all who are diligently seeking to show that unity exists between the physical and superphysical at all times. We may well afford to discard the adjective "supernatural," unless we give it a significance quite at variance with much that passes for theology. There are higher and lower planes of nature ; thus it is not incorrect to call some super and others suh, when we are comparing them with a genreal average level of human intellectual attainment, which claims to have a certain amount of acquaintance with a very limited portion of Nature, but freely speculates regarding other realms, which are beyond the scrutiny of ordinary observations. There is nothing unscientific, and certainly nothing irrational, in lending a willing ear to the testimony of the ages on behalf of spiritual revelation, provided we always admit that what was possible in the past is equally possible to-day, and that however strange to us certain phenomena may seem, we have no ground for supposing that because they are (to us) mysterious, they are not as much in harmony with the operation of undeviating law as the erratic movements of a celestial visitor like Halley's Comet, which comes to visit our skies only about once in every seventy-five years, in- stead of appearing regularly in the heavens like those familiar planets Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, who are old friends to every one of us. Whatever we are accustomed to regularly behold we are quite certain to call natural, but any- thing unusual or previously unknown to us we are apt to dub supernatural, thereby exposing a strange, Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 57 but familiar, combination of ignorance and self-con- ceit. What right have we to claim to so far know the limits of the natural as either to deny the pos^ sibility of some curious phenomenon or else rashly attribute it to some miraculous intervention of divine providence, as though God changed or sus- pended universal order every time we encounter something we are not wise enough to explain? The growing thought of to-day in cultured circles is drifting ever further and further away from atheism, and from supernaturalism also, and is coming to a reasonable conclusion that the unseen universe has never been entirely invisible to the whole of humanity, though very few apparently have anywhere at any time penetrated to any large extent into its mysterious depths. The honored names of Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and many other distinguished modern scientists immediately summon forth the idea of fearless and industrious seekers after truth coupling psychical research with general mundane occupations. These good and great men, and many others associated with them, have during many years of indefatigable investigation accumulated an enormus quantity of facts which have already gone immensely far to dispel the clouds of superstition and negation which still, to some extent, obscure the public intellect, even in Great Britain and America where intellect- ual progress has supposedly reached a very noble pitch. Soon after the breaking forth of the move- ment known as Modern Spiritualism in America, in 1848, a large number of highly distinguished men of light and leading in various communities under- 58 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. took a searching investigation of the claims of the new cult, which from its inception has always em- bodied within itself the most curiously heterogen- eous elements. Among distinguished authors on both sides the Atlantic a foremost place is deserv- edly given to William Howitt, whose compendious work, ''The History of The Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, and in all Churches, Christian and Pagan, demonstrating a universal faith" may well be styled a monumental tribute to ripe pains- taking scholarship. In this great work, issued in two large volumes both in England and America, we have an account of spiritual manifestations of the most widely diversified character, ranging from the truly angelic to the distinctively diabolical, and as the author was one of the best known scholars of his day, and a man who wrote much of the best standard educational literature published in Great Britain during the middle of the Nineteenth Cen- tury, his testimony cannot be lightly brushed aside; nor can we justifiably ignore the works of those famous Americans, Mapes and Hare, or the writ- ings of Judge Edmonds and many other equally well known and highly reliable members of the learned professions, all of whom from a worldly standpoint risked much, but could gain nothing, by giving their endorsement to the genuineness of marvels which were rudely scouted, not only by the ordinary people but by the great majority of college professors and graduates who would not condescend to seriously investigate them. No one doubts that a vast amount of fraud has been intro- duced in the name of Spiritualism, and we cannot Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 59 close our eyes to the fact that many honest people are sometimes subject to hallucinations, but there is unmistakably a large residiuum of fact which con- clusively proves the existence of a spiritual life in humanity which far transcends all materialistic theories of human origin and destiny. Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, — himself an earnest Spiritualist as well as a world-renowned Naturalist — has some- times expressed his opinion that our humanity to- day does not essentially differ from the humanity expressed on earth during the Stone Age or some other remote geological period. If this be a fact, and we see no reason to dispute it, we can very readily understand how it has come to pass that we find ourselves to-day invited to share experiences common to ancient nations and individuals who have left behind them extraordinary testimonies to the commingling, to some extent at least, of dis- carnate spiritual entities with physically embodied humanity. Without presuming to deny the exisit- ence of multitudinous orders of intelligencies in the Universe belonging to very different planets and systems than our own, we have certainly the right, and it is indeed our imperative scientific duty, to weigh the alleged evidence brought forward in fancied support of the oft-repeated allegation that the Angels of light, and also the Demons of dark- ness, constantly referred to in our Bible, and in a multitude of other venerated Scriptures, belong to other orders in Creation than ourselves. It seems almost unaccountable, in the face of the Biblical record itself, that anyone should ever have imagined that the authors of the text ever had in mind the 6o Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. appearance on earth as Angels, of beings of any other Order than ourselves, for the narrators always describe celestial visitors as men, or at any rate as human, for there is no definite allusion to sex in any original. The masculine and plural genders are very much confused in English versions of Hebrew Scriptures, and this is often due to the fact that a great many Hebrew words fail to give any idea that one sex rather than the other is indicated. Nothing but senseless bigotry and old-fogeyism can have led ecclesiastical commissioners to reject statues representing angels, as occurred at one time in New York, because the sculptor had chiseled some of them in male and others in female shape, and for educated Christians to take so ridiculous a stand would be quite incomprehensible were it not for our .painful familiarity with the strenuous endeavors of intolerant males in many ages to con- sign their mothers and sisters to comparative oblivion while they filled all important of^ces them- selves and derived their adequate support very largely indeed from the work and income of the fe- male members of their flocks. A very old and pow- erful weapon is wrested from the grasp of masculine ecclesiastical monopolists immediately we prove to the world that the very authority on which they have relied to sustain their fictitious claims is act- ually against them. People have a perfect right to openly dispute the doctrine of Biblical authority, but there can be no fair play if we misrepresent the teachings of any documents and then base our own dogmas on such misrepresentation. The first chapter of Genesis emphatically declares that Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 6l original Humanity is equally male and female. There can be but two intelligible explanations of this fact, viz., the ancient belief, still entertained by many Mystics, that human beings were originally super-sexual, sex differentiation only beginning with some departure from an original condition, and the much simpler view, which we can all appreciate without plunging into any deep waters of Mystic- ism, that whenever and wherever human life first made its appearance on this planet males and fe- males were existent side by side on terms of com- plete equality. Who then are the Bible angels who so frequently appeared to patriarchal families of old? Young men, in our English text, they fre- quently are called, and so perfectly human in all their attributes did they appear that frequently we are told the inhabitants of cities in which they manifested mistook them for ordinary travelers, — a circumstance which once for ajl disposes of the claim that they were something other than human, or that they appeared in any startling, because unfam- iliar, guise We have no justifiable reason for de- ciding that all the Biblical Angels were even human spiritual entities disrobed of flesh ; it is quite rational to maintain that the word "angel" is often used to designate a messenger from some Spiritual Order, one who merely held high rank as a teacher or ambassador and' who was entrusted with some par- ticular commission to a special place and people. There seems good reason for admitting the con- tention of Edward Irving, — founder of the body of Christians styling itself Catholic Apostolic Church, — that the primitive Chrisian Church ac- 62 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. knowledged four Orders of Ministers, the highest of which was termed Angels. This doctrine proclaimed successfully in the Nineteenth century, first in Great Britain, and then in several other lands, by the intrepid Irving and his devoted fol- lowers, derived much sanction from the opening chapters of the Apocalypse, which speaks of the message of the Spirit being sent to the Angels of the Seven Churches of Asia, the plain inference being that the overseers thus designated must have helc^ a rank similar to that of bishops in many Christian communities to-day. It seems, however, certain that though the simplest definition of angel is, broadly speaking, messenger, ancient Scriptures give us frequently to understand that beings ordin- arily unseen occasionally made their appearance in materialized form, and when they did so they were not generally distinguishable from ordinary human beings. Whenever we are led to suppose that they were seen by common vision we may rationally sup- pose that they were actually young Initiates into the Temple Mysteries of antiquity, commissioned by the Heads of the Orders to act as ambassadors or intermediaries. This very simple commentary on some, otherwise highly mysterious, portions of the Bible text explains lucidly and simply the oft-re- peated title ''Angel of the Lord," which occurs with great frequency, and though it may come as a decided shock to Bible-worshipers to be offered so simple a commentary, even the most orthodox of such, — if in any way connected with one or other of the sacerdotal Churches, — will soon begin to see that if such were the case in days of old, this fact Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 6^ only bears witness to the antiquity and continuity of a priestiv system, and priesthoods are, as we all well know, much more ancient than either Christian- ity or Judaism. According to the ideas we are now expressing, we must take into exact account the original meaning of terms and titles variously trans- lated GOD ; the Lord God ; the Lord ; and the Angel of the Lord. These designatory titles are by no means correctly interchangeable, and the fact that they have been so largely regarded as synonymous has led to an immense amount of bewildering and acrimonious controversy. We can scarcely believe that any man, woman, youth or maiden, possessed of ordinary intelligence and fairly well acquainted with the English language, would ever imagine that these four plainly distinctive titles were used as synonyms originally, any more than one is inclined to believe, when reading general history, that an envoy is the monarch whose commissions he has been appointed to fulfil. Every student of Kabbal- istic literature knows thoroughly well that the oldest Hebrew documents treat largely of various Orders of Intelligences who execute Divine commissions and take actively influential parts in directing the affairs of Earth. No one can read a modern Jewish Prayer Book, belonging to the orthodox or conservative school, without finding frequent mention of several Celestial Hierarchies, in accordance with very ancient terminology. For example, we will turn to the standard popular orthodox Jewish Prayer Book in use throughout the British Empire, and to a con- siderable extent also in the United States. In the course of the Morning Service for Sabbaths and 64 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. Festivals, occur the following majestic words, which are verily a beautiful link between the more prosaic present and the richly-storied and imaginative past: *'Be thou blessed, O our Rock, our King and Re- deemer, Creator of holy beings. Praised be thy name for ever, O our King; Creator of ministering spirits, all of whom stand in the heights of the universe and proclaim with awe in unison aloud the words of the living God and everlasting King. All of them are beloved, pure and mighty, and all of them in dread and awe do the will of their Master ; and all of them open their mouths in holiness and purity, with song and psalm, while they bless and praise, glorify and reverence, sanctify and ascribe sovereignty to the name of the Divine King, the great, mighty and dreaded One, holy is he ; and they all take upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven one from the other, and give sanction to one another to hallow their Creator; in tranquil joy of spirit, with pure speech and holy melody they all respond in unison, and exclaim with awe; Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory; and the Ophanim and the holy Chayoth with a noise of great rushing, upraising themselves towards the Seraphim, thus over against them offer praise and say Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place." The above quotation, which would find no exact parallel in any Prayer Book compiled by Rabbis of the Reform school, is an interesting survival, both in sentiment and language, of very ancient Jewish tliought, tho' we would presume to suggest that im- provements in the English version would in no way Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 65 obscure the meaning of the Hebrew original, which still remains the unrivaled tongue of orthodox Israel- itish worship. Such a word as "dread" finds a bet- ter substitute in "reverence," and it is highly import- ant to keep this thought in mind when we under- take to criticize the Bible texts, from the sublime imagery of which such utterances have been col- lated. Ezekiel's visions are responsible for such passages as the one just cited, and it is, of course, very largely open to conjecture how far it was for- merly believed in Israel that these visions were actually revelations of life in the Spiritual Universe, and how far the language was designedly sym- bolical. But however much room there may be for controversy in this particular regard, no doubt whatever can exist in the minds of those who have made themselves familiar with the records of antiquity, that the Jews, in common with all other historic peoples, had firm confidence in the real existence of unnumbered legions of spiritual cmo- panies, who were often called the Legions of the Skies. It has remained for Le Plongeon, and a few other indefatigable modern investigators in the Western Hemisphere to prove conclusively the enormous antiquity of similar convictions in West- ern as well as Eastern lands. Though at first sight it may appear to unreflecting minds that there is little else than primitive superstition in these allusions to manifold Orders of spiritual existences, it surely requires but a very little intelligent medi- tation on the scientifically revealed arrangement of the universe to put to flight so vapid a conclu- sion. Harmony is everywhere self -evidently dis- 66 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. played in the systematic organization of solar systems which stud the immensities of infinitude, and in all the myriad systems of worlds discovered through the piercing eye of the most far-reaching telescopes, we find no two globes exactly similar tho' all are constructed of a single primary substance and all revolve with such perfect regularity that astronomers know exactly when to expect the re- appearance of even the remotest star in the gigantic aggregation of constellations which make up our universe. This indisputable natural revelation well comports with all that we are accustomed to call Natural Religion, and when it is fairly weighed it serves to explain, without denying the primal basis of Revealed Religion, because when both are rightly understood one dovetails into the other. Natural Religionists invariably claim that they derive all their ideas from a contemplation of natural pheno- mena without the interposition of any priests or angels, but they who make this claim to possess more information than the majority of their fellows are simply placing themselves in the ranks of what may well be called a scientific priesthood, and noth- ing is more self-evident than that avowed Rational- ists place extreme reliance upon the authority of great names and point to scientific discoveries with immense satisfaction, though they were made by others than themselves. There is very little difi^erence at core between this attitude and that of the most confirmed Theoso- phists, for the latter only claim that their authorities are peculiarly endowed individuals whom they term the Elder Brethren of our race. Recent Theo- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 67 sophical publications are far less difficult to read and understand than are the older writings of the Alchemistical Philosophers, who had a double object for concealing the inner meaning of their teaching within a cloak of hieroglyphical symbology. The "jargon of the Mystics," as this allegorical method has been vulgarly termed, was rendered necessary during the Middle Ages in Europe on account of the ignorant fanaticism then and there prevailing, for without the employment of a mystic glyph there would have been no safety for the writers and also no means of communication between fellow stud- ents of the Mysteries. We glibly speak of the great discoveries made by Bruno, Galileo, Herschel, Newton, Kepler, and many other highly endowed men who lived but a few centuries ago, and we praise them none too highly when we pay glowing tributes to their research and industry; but there is no valid reason for continuing to assert that the heliocentric system of astronomy was not known long ages before modern Europe was a liome of learning. We are far too apt to claim some monop- oly for discovery or revelation, which always covers a much larger area than can be bounded by any special time or place. We ought now to be ready to recast our theories concerning the spread of religious ideas and practices, many of which may have sprung up simultaneously in different parts of the world instead of having been borrowed by one nation from another. Astronomers in their observatories need not make each other's acquaintance, or even know of each other's existence, to make similar observations of 68 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. celestial phenomena, for it is quite possible that dif- ferent men in various places at the same time may- be turning their eyes to the heavens and watching the same celectial panorama. The Egyptian and Indo-Germanic theories of the transit of religions and languages have often been pitted against each other as rival candidates for uni- versal acceptance, but as the Atlantian theory is very much older than either, we may find in it a very fair solution of many difficult problems which a less universal theory of origins will fail to supply. The kings and queens of very ancient days may have indeed ruled by that divine right of individual qualification for supremacy without which all nominal rulership is the next thing to a farce. The Gods and Godesses of ancient Greece and Rome are now often looked upon as glorified rulers of At- lantis, whose memory had been handed down with ever increasing glorification, just as we are prone to glorify our national heroes and heroines until from a basis in actual history we construct mental images of almost divine personages whose anniver- saries we celebrate as public holidays and whose memories we extol so highly that many of them shortly become saints and even demigods in our esteem. When we read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey we are at once impressed with the very earthly attributes assigned by that great poet to the divinities of the Pantheon. Such beings as are therein de- scribed are so entirely human in all their feelings and conduct that we can well belive that their ideal- ized existence in the Empyrean was founded on records of their actual life on earth, a conclusion Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 69 easily reached by all who know how firm a hold ancestor worship has held and still holds upon the hearts and minds of multitudes. There is much more that is historical, and consequently much less that is fabulous, in the views of Mythologists than many of us have been brought up to believe, for we are now experiencing a reaction in thought from the extremely materialistic views which for many centuries held undisputed sway in nearly every Western seat of learning. So dense has been the darkness in which college professors were engulfed where the Classics were concerned, and so relentless was the prejudice against Oriental religions, that in every European university students were taught to believe that there was no truth whatever in the relig- ious concepts of even the most illustrious Pagans, apart from some concession being made to the ex- cellence of a portion of their moral philosophy. Now it is becoming the fashion to treat the pagan divinities very much as we treat the Christian saints, who were certainly human beings with an actual earthly career, though it is very doubtful whether such narratives as we find in the "Lives of the Saints" published with ecclesiastical sanction, could in all cases be verified by historic scrutiny. Our own contemporaries may be, some of them at least, quite as intelligent and also quite as saintly as their greatly revered progenitors, but as distance always lends enchantment to a view, we are rarely if ever anything like so ready to canonize those who are living among us as those who have long since departed from this mortal state. There are, how- ever, four distinct elements in mythology without yo Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. due regard to which we are unable to make much progress in Biblical and Occult research. These are, first, Astronomical and Astrological ; second, Historical and Biographical; third. Spiritualistic and Idealistic; fourth, Esoteric and Intuitive. We can read any ancient story in the light of this four- fold method of interpretation without doing viol- ence to reason or good judgment, for we must always remember that there were no cheap printing presses in days of old or in Classic lands making it easy for every item of unimportant information to be recorded in a daily paper. Scribes in olden times were exceptionally capable people and the art of writing was looked upon as sacred, therefore, only the very important events in the life of the people would be permanently recorded, and that portion of their literature which would be produced on well- nigh imperishable tablets would be the work of those exceptionally learned ones to whom was en- trusted the custody of those affairs which were generally esteemed as of the highest moment. Trivial incidents are often mentioned but not for their own sake, only for the purpose of illustrating important teachings which the wise men gave to their students through the agency of a double cipher, which enabled those who were in the inner ring of the students' conclave to ascertain the teachers' esoteric meaning, while all outside that consecrated circle would only hear of common-place events of no exceptional significance. When this fact is thoroughly digested and we consider the para- bolic teaching still universal in the East, our examin- Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 71 ation of ancient records will become both edifying and fascinating and we shall be able to escape the Scylla of unreasoning scepticism and also the Charybdis of blind unquestioning belief in the Div- ine authority of all that any record holds. CHAPTER IV. VARIOUS SPIRITUAIy EI.EMENTS IN TH^ BIBI,^ AND civAssic IvITe:rature:. In that highly authentic work by William Howitt, ''The History of the Supernatural," that learned and painstaking author, whose reverence for the Jewish and Christian Scriptures was ex- tremely great, justifies his employment of that old- fashioned theological term, — now frequently super- seded by the far simpler word superphysical, in the following graphic language: ''The author of this work intends by the supernatural the operation of those higher and more recondite laws of God with which, being yet but most imperfectly acquainted, we either denominate their effects miraculous, or, shutting our eyes firmly, deny their existence al- together. So far from holding that what are called miracles are interruptions, or violations of the course of nature, he regards them only as the re- sults of spiritual laws, which in their occasional action subdue, suspend, or neutralize the less power- ful physical laws, just as a stronger chemical affinity subdues a weaker one, producing new com- binations, but combinations strictly in accordance with the collective laws of the universe, whether 72 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 73 understood or not understood by us. At a time when so many objections are raised to portions of the Scripture narrative, which unsettle men's minds and haunt them with miserable forebodings, the author has thought it of the highest importance to bring into a comprehensive view the statements of the most eminent historians and philosophers of all ages and nations on the manifestations of those spiritual agencies amongst them, which we, for want of farther knowledge, term supernatural." This extremely fertile author completely fulfilled his promise to his readers to acquaint them with well- nigh universal testimony to the reality of spiritual occurrences which have taken place, sometimes plentifully, and at other times but rarely, in every section of the globe, and though William Howitt may well be ranked among Christian apologists as well as among Bible elucidators, he was an im- compromising, though never a fanatical or un- reasoning, Spiritualist. The American edition of the famous English book to which we are now alluding was published in Philadelphia in 1863, by the celebrated firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co., at a time when the British and American publics were intensely agitated over religious scepticism on the one hand and the stupendous claims of modern Spiritualists on the other. Had it not been for William Howitt's wide and high reputation al- ready achieved in literary circles, it is doubtful whether his explanations of Spiritualism would have excited much attention, but the name and fame of this distinguished author were unquestionably such that whatever he published was always perused 74 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. thoughtfully by intelligent persons in all stations. The unique value of such a treatise is in the light it throws upon the universality of spiritual unveil- ings. How the claimant for exclusive revelation can derive any satisfaction from so broad a testimony we are at a loss to see, but to the student of Sacred Literature in general, rather than of a single vol- ume, the extent of territory covered in the narrative must prove thoroughly welcome as well as enor- mously enlightening. Good and evil spirits are acknowledged in all records of spiritual intercom- munion during modern as well as ancient days, but by ''evil" is never corectly meant ''hopelessly de- praved," for the unanimous testimony of all truly enlightened teachers in all climes and ages has been in complete condemnation of the hideous doctrine of endless and useless suffering and its boon com- panion, total depravity. These nightmares of false theology have never received support or sanction at the hands of any illuminated teachers, and it is quite safe to aver that there never was a really enlightened spiritual teacher on earth at any time who endorsed the garbled misinterpretations of Sheol, Gehenna, Tartarus, and other Hebrew and Greek terms for states of post-mortem purification, which are found either in the Bible or in the Classics. But however true the statements may be that "the door of reform- ation is never closed" and that "the pathway of pro- gress lies eternally unobstructed before every human soul," — as certain Spiritualist Societies declare that it does, — such an affirmation by no means disposes of the darker aspects of spirit-communion, though it does suggest to us a reasonable attitude to take Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 75 toward those "dwellers on the threshold" who are frequently mistaken, by credulous persons, for some mighty angelic beings who are supposed to be amaz- ingly advanced along the path of progress. We cannot curtly dismiss the doctrine of ''obsession," disagreeable though its contemplation may be, with the mere snap of a contemptuous finger, but if dark as well as bright unseen influences are around us, whether we know that such is the case or whether we are ignorant thereof, we may rest well assured that the incessant operation of the undeviating law of spiritual affinity must ever be the factor which determines the class of influences to which we yield, and this same law must inevitably at all times regulate our closest psychic intimacies. "I will fear no evil," says the composer of the twenty-third psalm, a phrase which would be meaningless, did the word *'evil" convey no meaning to its employer's mind. Good and evil are to our understanding relative, not absolute terms. Absolutely there can be no evil but relatively all discord or disease is evil, while all harmony or health is good. This concept is so entirely universal that in all lands and through all ages the demonstrated healing of the sick, through some ordinarily uncomprehended agency, has furnished satisfactory proof that the operating intelligence was of beneficient character. Among Jews and Romans alike this test was considered quite conclusive at the beginning of the Christian era, and all through the following centuries, including the present, the same idea has remained so widely pre- valent that works of healing are always triumph- antly referred to as evidences of the holy source "jd Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. whence mysterious abilities are derived. "Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" is a question just as pertinent to-day as when propounded in the time of Jesus. Miracles of healing are only performable by magicians of the "white" variety; those of the "black" order can produce genuine manifestations of many dubious kinds; they can startle but they cannot heal, because healing being a work of har- monizing is not within the range of rites perform- able by those who live in discord, and as the great divide between Leucomancy and Necromancy, i. e., between light-dispensing and death-dealing magic, is that the former is always operated with benign- ant and the latter with malign intent, it is not very difficult to discriminate intelligently between a righteous Spiritualism and an unrighteous Sorcery. At this point many would-be Bible interpreters have appeared almost insanely blind, for even in this day we often read reports of sermons against Spiritual- ism displaying such crass ignorance on the part of the preacher that we know full well that nothing but blear-eyed prejudice or sheer stupidity could have allowed such' utterances to pass as "gospel preach- ing" when we all know "gospel" is a synonym for good news and joyful tidings. It is indeed an im- portant part of a prophetic ministry to warn the unwary against dangers which lurk in their path, often unseen and unsuspected, but there are but two ways in which such warning can be profitably given; one being to counsel the highest moral in- tegrity and the other to recommend firm develop- ment of individuality, neither of which good pur- poses can possibly be served by diatribe and the Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations, yy hopeless confounding of things which radically differ. It must certainly be frankly admitted that there are many statements in various parts of the Hebrew Scriptures fiercely condemnatory of Baby- lonian magical arts as they were practiced during the Jewish Captivity, and it was almost immediately after the return of the Jews to Palestine that there arose great prophets in Israel who strongly urged upon the people an immediate recantation of their errors and an instant return to the pure monotheism which was from the very first the pride and glorv of Israel. No doubt there are many passages in various portions of the Bible which can be so con- strued as to make it appear that every form of divination was condemned by the prophets in the name of Cod, but if so strained an interpretation be placed on doubtful passages, what can we say concerning Joseph and his divining cup which was found in the sack of his younger brother Benjamin, when this same Joseph was held up for admiration as a true prophet and one through whose gracious influence famine was averted in Egypt and his own brethren, despite their cruelty to him in his youth, most hospitably received and kindly treated in the time of their necessity? What can we say concern- ing Samuel who was not only clairaudient in child- hood but grew up to be a mighty prophet, one to whom the people resorted, and never in vain, for wise direction in times of difficulty; and what in- deed concerning a whole host of prophets who were all diviners in some respects but who righteously adhered to the moral law and only employed divin- ation for honorable and praiseworthy ends. It 78 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. surely needs no unusual acumen to discriminate between prophesy and witchcraft, seeing that the original of the word witch means one who exerts unholy spells with malicious purpose, a practice not entirely absent from the ranks of unscrupulous persons in the present day. No matter whether the spells worked or not, the true prophets of every age and people have entiely condemned every practice actuated by any desire to work injury upon man or beast, and they have also condemned all those highly objectionable methods resorted to in the Babylonian Empire which had for their object entering into communion with unseen beings through the arts of necromancy, which were so en- tirely different from all respectable Spiritualistic practices that it is manifestly unfair to in any way confound them. We hear a good deal about "malic- ious mesmerism," and much else that is uncanny when the inner workings of some modern societies are divulged and one party undertakes to criminate another, and though it is a very open question how far such charges can ever be substantiated, we have a right to set our faces very decidedly against all endeavors to misuse any occult agency with which we may be familiar. Nothing can well be more weird and despicable than to endeavor to per- vert telepathy or mental telegraphy to the base end of harming someone against whom we feel resent- ment ; but on the other hand we can readily see how truly kindhearted may be the action of benevolent and conscientious people who give what they term "absent mental treatments" for the sole purpose of assisting others to gain or to recover health and to Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 79 rise superior to all sorts of temptations and difficult- ies. The cry of danger is sure to be raised in some quarters whenever the mysterious is mentioned, and the faint-hearted are very readily alarmed at any cry of 'Volf ," no matter by whom that cry is raised ; but we should like to inquire of those alarmists, who are always prating of real or imaginary dangers, whether they know of any domain in the whole wide field of scientific and mechanical progress in which there is no danger Let calamity-howlers and other scarecrowists be consistent and they must of necessity warn us against the use of steam, electric- ity, and every other appliance of civilization, and they must also veto every advance in the art of navigation, especially that of the air, because of the perils actually encountered by sailors and aviators. We have no right to suppose that we are entirely immune from danger until we have reached the height attained only by great adepts in any line of enterprise, but such elevated conditions have never been reached by cravens ; only the strong and the brave are fitted to scale the heights on which now stand the triumphant heroes whose motto is ever- more Excelsior. Alluding again to the work of William Howitt we can easily follow him in his daring assertions that miracle is *'the eternal heritage of the church," but let us always remember that the Latin word miraciihim only means something wonderful be- cause unexplained, though not inexplicable. People marvel greatly whenever they witness anything they fail to comprehend, but if they use their reason thev do not therefore attribute it either to jugglery 8o Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. or diablerie. A great mass of testimony has recently been collected proving that works of healing similar to those described of old are now taking place among us, some of them within the pale of organized churches, but very many entirely outside of all recognized organizations. Christian Scientists and other would-be monopolists of the healing power may well point with satisfaction to their own successes, but they /can have no right wahtever to claim that they alone are gifted with power to heal, or that similar wonders wrought by people outside their ranks are due to "malicious magnetism" or some other scarecrow which they have trumped up in the interests of their monopoly. There are very good people within the ranks of all parties, who because of their earnestness and faith do truly accomplish wonders, but no single denomination or institution whether it be a church or a school, has a shred of evidence to support its bombastic claim if ever it attempts to prove that it alone is a repository of divine grace or healing energy. The power to heal has ever been regarded as both a divine gift and a scientific attainment, and far from these ideas being mutually exclusive they are in complete accord, the thought of a divine gift referring properly to our inward containment, and scientific skill to the results of human industry making use of the gifts latent within us. No one can read that portion of the Book of Exodus which recounts the tale of Moses and Aaron on one side, and Pharaoh's magicians on the other, without at once discerning that the narrator considered it a self-evident proof that Moses and Aaron were under Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 8i the patronage of heaven, while the emissaries of the King of Egypt received no divine sanction, because the former could and did heal the sick, while the latter with their enchantments could only add to the sufferings of afflicted men and animals. Whatever those wonders were which preceded the outgoing of Israel from Egypt, they were certainly considered by Josephus and other eminent historians as clench- ing the matter in favor of the Hebrews, seeing that they possessed among them prophetic leaders who could disarm all antagonism and triumph over every obstacle by supplying those credentials which were always demanded in ancient times of all who pre- sumed to speak to the nations as divine ambassa- dors. We may well claim that there are phases of spiritual healing, such as the reformation of character, much more important from an ethical standpoint than even the removal of the most serious bodily distempers ; but all the varied works of healing recorded in ancient and modern scrip- tures seem manifestly to proceed from a single central source. That beautiful modern classic, "Ben Hur," by Lew Wallace, very clearly portrays the world-wide and age-long feeling that every divinely inspired messenger must accomplish some real good to humanity in more than one direction: and the higher the station and the greater the power of the messenger in question, the mightier must be the miracles accomplished ; therefore it is quite harmon- ious with universal sentiment in this regard to select a case of two lepers who were healed by a Master when they placed implicit confidence in him, and thereby availed themselves of his healing potency. 82 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. All mere wonders which simply excite surprise and apparently benefit no one, carry no manifest creden- tials with them; they may be "wheat" or they may be "tare," and until they have proved themselves by their effects, we have no right to judge them defin- itely; but whenever actual good is accomplished we are stupid indeed if we do not attribute it to a bene- volent origin, and our position is equally absurd if we refuse condemnation to practices of any sort which bring disaster in their train. We must use our reason concerning miracles just as we use it in the ordinary affairs of life, judging trees by the fruit they bear, and when this test is faithfully and universally applied we shall no longer stumble blindly as of yore over approbations and prohibitions en- countered in the Bible or elsewhere. It would be a very interesting story, though a very long one, to consider the full significance of all the names ascribed to the various characters in the Bible, and in other Sacred Books, with a view to ascertaining as far as possible, the esoteric bearing of these many peculiar titles, at the same time paying particular attention to the purposeful changing of names, either by enlargement of the number of syllables, or by com- plete alteration. The modern world is becoming greatly interested in nomenclature, and many are the classes held in London, New York, and other influential cities for the study of name values. What's in a name? is a very serious question in the esteem of many present-day enquirers into esoteric mysteries, and when we take into account the very large amount of interest now taken in astrology among highly intelligent people, we are quite ready Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 83 to actively revive all that is innocent and useful in the methods of divination practised by the Ancients. In that remarkable treatise *'Art Magic" presented to students of Spiritism and Occultism by Emma Hardinge Britten, in 1876, and more recently dis- tributed widely through the enterprise of that singu- larly comprehensive weekly paper, "The Progressive Thinker," of Chicago, we read of many sorts of divination which the author regards as highly re- pulsive to refined feelings, though by no means unworthy of attention from the standpoint of re- search into the possible amount of control which highly trained ascetics may gain over their sub- jugated material organisms. With such harsh and repulsive methods as those practised by Hindu Fakirs and Mohammedan Dervishes do not care to deal, as their frantic rites are not the ceremonies performed by the refined Esoteric Confraternities, who studiously cultivate a love of the beautiful and the wholesome, and of naught beside. In the ancient temples of Greece and Rome, as well as of Egypt and India, there were many various arts of divination practised, ranging from the sublime to the disgusting, not indeed all at one time in any single class of temples, but at different periods, and to some extent at the same time also, by different bodies of practitioners. Just as there are many highly variant schools of religion and medicine in the leading countries of the world to-day, so was such the case in lands and ages of antiquity, and such it has continued to some extent at all times everywhere. Divination by examination of the entrails of slaughtered animals was very common 84 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. in the Roman Empire, and though this was 'not a truly refined, it was not an altogether abominable practise, as animals were killed for food, as they are still, and after the breath has left the body there is no crime in examining the carcass ; nevertheless we must always remember that the most lucid seers were vegetarians who would utterly refuse to have any part in the slaying of animals or birds and to whom contact with a corpse would be intolerable. These pure-minded and exceptionally refined Sensitives of old were the seers and seerese"s through whose instrumentality oracular teachings were given which won for the Schools of the Prophets, wherever such were established, a reputation for immediate con- tact with veritable divinities. The atrocious practices of vivisectors and other flagrant violators of natural order may bring about certain psychical results of a highly detrimental character, but never can brutal outrages on man or beast result in any other sort of consequences, in the long run, than the fate which invariably overtakes every "black magi- cian." That exquisite story of Parsifal, known to all music-lovers as the grandest of all modern operas, sets forth, with unmistakable lucidity, the exact dis- tinction between the contradictory varieties of magic symbolically designated "white" and "black." Parsifal becomes a prince among Adepts, worthy to be the Supreme Head of the Knights of the Holy Grail, only after his fierce encounter with Kling- sor, which resulted in the complete destruction of a palace of necromancy. Kundry, at one time a servant of the Knights and at another time a slave to Klingsor, previous to her final deliverance by Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 85 Parsifal, is a good illustration of an unbalanced sensitive, liable at any time to be swayed by a tem- porarily predominating influence. When as a guileless youth Parsifal goes forth with bow and arrow and thoughtlessly slays a sacred swan, he is reprimanded sharply by Gurnemanz, a guardian of a sacred enclosure, and henceforth the lad shoots no more birds. At that moment when he accepts re- proof and resolves to live by a higher rule than the ordinary he has "entered the Path," and is verily on the mystic road to eventual adepthood. We can- not too forcibly insist that the great difference be- tween the state of the simple Medium and that of the Adept, is that the former is subject to the sway of varying external influences, while the latter has learned the art of psychic navigation and can there- fore determine what influences shall or shall not sway him. Amfortas, a weak (and therefore incom- petent) Leader of the Knights, must resign his office to a stronger and worthier successor. When Parsifal ascends the throne he instantly heals the wound of his afflicted predecessor by touching it with the Sacred Spear, which Amfortas had lost during an unsuccessful struggle with Klingsor, and which Parsifal had recovered at the end of an equally sharp encounter with the necromancer, a battle which ended in the complete destruction of a dangerous institution of iniquity. No story illus- trates more fully than Parsifal the magical anti- podes, for on the one side we find the spirit losing to the flesh and on the other the spirit triumph- ing over it ; and again, on the one hand a vacillating woman subjugated to the ends of evil, and on the 86 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. other hand that same woman rescued and strength- ened and adapted henceforward to gladly serve, in perfect freedom, the cause of righteousness. The curious story of the Witch of Endor is one of those Bible narratives which have given rise to endless controversy by reason of the highly in- volved nature of the narrative itself, for it is by no means clear that that extraordinary woman was an untruthful or disagreeable personage, though King Saul, by no means a model monarch, had put all women of her class under the ban of his displeasure. There is no moral lesson taught by endorsing the popular clerical view that Saul committed a great sin by consulting this woman, rather is the moral of the story to be found in the statement that neither she, nor the spirit of Samuel whom Saul invoked, could save him from the consequences of his own long-continued disobedience to divine 'direction. Samuel had long and often remonstrated with Saul and urged him to turn from iniquity to righteous- ness, but the obstinate king persistently and steadily refused to heed the prophet's admonitions, and to such a pass had he brought his own condition by long-continued obduracy that at length it became too late for him to retrieve his fallen fortunes ; thus it was all in vain that he strove to gain an interview with the departed Samuel who, great prophet though he was, had no power to save the transgressor from from the accumulated consequences of his now ripe trangressions. There are crises in all histories,, both personal and national, and when a harvest is ready for the sickle it is then too late to endeavor to avert the result of what has culminated in a conspicuous Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 87 output. We must take the consequences, painful and bitter though they may be, just as on the other hand, when we have acted wisely and righteously, we can- not escape the blissful effects of our long-continuing harmonious activity. Up to a certain point we are all free to change our course of action, but when certain seeds have already matured and trees are already in fruit, though we may resolve that our next harvest shall be a very different one, we cannot avert the immediate doom which now confronts us. The oracles and sybils connected with all ancient temples were accustomed to warn their clients of impending catastrophes, and, if we may place any reliance on history, their warnings were often useful in helping those who consulted them to avoid con- tinuance in a path of danger ; but sometimes the con- suitor of the oracle arrived too late to take advan- tage of that benevolent seership, which when resorted to in season saved many from falling over psychic precipices. The woman at Endor (who is not a witch in the original but only a clairvoyant) told Samuel that she saw with him in spirit a form which he recognized as Samuel, but she had no power to induce this spirit to answer to her de- mands. That very fine drama, "The Shepherd King," in which the highly gifted actor, Wright Lorimer, has starred so successfully, gives a version of this Biblical incident wonderfully convincing and strikingly in accordance with the purest esoteric teaching. In that superb play, the woman in her cave declares she has no power to summon Samuel, but he appears to Saul entirely of his own volition, a perfectly reasonable conclusion if we take into 88 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. account the obvious fact that the prophet would be in a spiritual condition far superior to that of any possible familiar spirit who might be at the beck and call of any ancient seeress or modern medium. Moses Hull, a prominent American Spiritualist, pointed out very clearly in many of his lectures and writings that the word "witch" was only among those headings of the chapters in the King James Version of the Bible which were manufactured about 1611, nowhere in the text itself even in that particular version. Nothing can be more ridiculous than to declare that because there were laws against witchcraft three hundred years ago in England that therefore every woman accused of witcheries, re- gardless of place or conditions, was other than respectable. Samuel Putnam wrote a fine history of witchcraft in New England in which he proved conclusively to all fair-minded readers that at Salem, Massachusetts, and in several other places in America fanatical Puritans condemned to death, after having committed to torture, many innocent victims of their insane intolerance not many cen- turies ago. The original object of legislation against witchcraft may have been entirely praise- worthy, as it was evidently intended to effectually discountenance all unholy practices having for their object human injury, but we all know how very quickly well-intentioned legislation can become per- verted in the hands of unreasoning bigots and other unscrupulous persons who never hesitate to attrib- ute the foulest crimes to those who have incurred their personal displeasure. Probably there were women, and men also, in ancient days who "peeped Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 89 and muttered," and by the aid of vile incantations endeavored to bring misery upon their victims, and such there may be to-day; but wholesale condem- nation of entire classes of people is always unjust and utterly irrational. Wheat and cockle grow together in all fields, and it often needs far more than average insight to discriminate between them until a time of harvest; it therefore becomes us, when reviewing ancient records, and especially when dealing with events in our own day, to give the benefit of a doubt wherever uncertainty prevails. Of one thing we may rest thoroughly assured, viz., that the universe is not regulated in so insane a manner as to permit devils to lure the unwary to destruction, while angelic ministry is beyond the reach of humanity. Whatever is true of the his- tory of Israel is equally true of other nations, and whatever could and did occur in days of old is also possible at this moment. We only learn a moral lesson when recounting the experiences of the past, if the recital thereof inspires us to heroic resolve to devote all our energies, along all the lines of our activity, to the great threefold object worthy of all noble men and women : The discovery of truth ; the diffusion of truth; the application of truth to the needs of humanity. With this spiritual amulet in our possession, we carry with us a potent magnet to attract celestial forces and an efficient safeguard against all hosts of darkness. CHAPTER V. CREATION LEGENDS — HOW ANCIENT IS HUMANITY ON THIS PI.ANET? HINDU CHRONOIvOGY. It seems scarcely necessary at this period to tell any fairly well-informed persons that the first two chapters of Genesis were never regarded as literal history by any students of esoteric doctrine, and we can readily believe the testimony of Swedenborg to the effect that records of very ancient ''Churches" prove conclusively that in times of old narratives regarded as specially sacred were all believed to con- tain an interior meaning with which the uninitiated may have been unfamiliar, but which was the only meaning with which spiritual teachers were concerned. The iconoclasm of Thomas Paine, Volney, Vol- taire, and other famous writers of a revolutionary and reactionary period, did yeoman service in the cause of intellectual liberty, but it was no part of their mission to unfold interior meanings or call attention to the spiritual agreement which can now be traced, thanks to modern critical research, between all the Scriptures venerated by different sections of humanity. It was really not earlier than 1893, in America, and then chiefly by reason of the 90 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 91 Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, in con- nection with the World's Fair, that the masses of the people began to take a really live interest in Comparative Religion, and even then, during the seventeen days of the September of that memorable year in which the Congress assembled, there were many pious people of fossilized convictions who were quite shocked at the idea of ''heathen" Orien- tals being invited to proclaim their "idolatrous" doc- trines on the same platforms with Christian minis- ters. But, to the credit of many distinguished representatives of the largest Christian denomina- tions, be it recorded that they treated the Asiatic delegates extremely well, and though it cannot be truthfully asserted that that memorable gathering resulted in completely breaking down all barriers of prejudice between East and West, it is no exaggera- tion to aver that since that great historical event there has been far less ignorance and bitterness dis- played by opposing religious systems than before that momentous gathering. True it is that some few Americans were so carried away by the picturesque- ness of Oriental costumes and the fascinating per- sonality of some of the Oriental Swamis, and other speakers at the Congress, that they were received into the Buddhistic or some other Asiatic religious fold, but, for the most part, no proselyting was either accomplished or attempted. The more inti- mately acquainted we become with differing reli- gious systems, the less need do we imagine for going over from one to another, seeing that they all mani- fest defects as well as excellences, and we are not likely to find all our ideals realized in any system. \ 92 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. The chief value of the research we are now attempt- ing is an endeavor to pierce external crusts of myth- ology and arrive at some reasonable and instructive views of the universe in which we are abiding. The number seven has always been regarded as particu- larly sacred by all peoples of antiquity, and the reason for this is to be found in Nature, entirely apart from human fancy. The seven hues of the Rainbow, the seven notes in the Musical Scale, and many other equally universal examples may be given of the prominence of seven. The seven "Days,'* or, more correctly. Periods, of Creation enumerated in the first chapter of Genesis agree substantially with similar enumerations in other and older Scrip- tures, and when we turn to Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" for exposition, we find that he informs us that they have nothing necessarily to do with external history, and that it makes no difference what facts may be disclosed through geology, the spiritual truth conveyed in the Pentateuch remains unchallenged. This strong position was finely eluci- dated and upheld by the scholarly Dr. Bayley, for many years minister of the New Jerusalem Church in Kensington, which was largely attended by ear- nest people who clung to the spiritual meaning of the Bible, while they followed their highly gifted pastor gladly in his many and wide pulpit excur- sions into scientific fields. "The Divine Word Opened" is the title of Dr. Bayley's best known book, which is one of the most remarkable and thought-provoking volumes of sermons anywhere procurable. Such works as this deserve much wider reading than they usually receive, for it is certainly Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 93 lamentable to note the crass ignorance of the Bible still largely prevalent among would-be expositors. Just as it has been truly said that no one can really understand any single language without some familiarity with several tongues, so is it also true that no one can duly appreciate any Creation Legend without an outline acquaintance with sev- eral. The seven Great Ages of the Earth must be seven vast periods, agreeing far more nearly with Oriental than with Occidental chronology; but no chronological element necessarily enters into the ear- liest parts of Genesis. The first word in the Hebrew Torah, herashith, is commonly rendered in English "in the beginning," a phrase which has no necessary reference either to time or place, but is equivalent to "at the starting-point." GOD (Elohim) is said to be the author of all that is produced, and as the author is declared to be entirely good, the results of Divine activity are pronounced likewise good. "And GOD saw that it was good," is a sentence several times reepated, referring to the goodness, each in its own degree, of the various orders of existence which appeared on earth before the advent of Humanity, and no matter what opinions any one may entertain concerning the second and following chapters of Genesis, the first chapter leaves no doubt in the minds of unprejudiced readers that the original tra- dition narrated in the Bible concerning human origin declares men and women to be a simultaneous crea- tion. Let any child be given the first account alone, and then questioned as to what it relates, that child is certain to say that men and women were created together. . Gnostic or Theosophical commentators 94 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. may undertake to discourse upon some original crea- tion antedating the complete materialization of human frames, and such disquisitions are always interesting and thought-exciting, though to many minds they appear incapable of demonstration. Pre- existence is taught in all Bibles, and, as the vener- able Dr. J. M. Peebles, and other modern Spiritual- ists of learning and experience have stoutly main- tained, there can be no evolution of aught that is not involved. Monkeys cannot beget men, though the Simian race may have existed on this planet long before the human. Esoteric teaching is to the effect that every type which appears on earth comes from a spiritual typal germ, a doctrine far more compre- hensible than the foundationless assertions of Materialists, who give us no foundation whatever for their atheistic dogmatism. Many scholars are confessedly agnostic; but agnosticism postulates nothing definitely concerning human origin. A truly wonderful exposition of Genesis has reached us from the inspired and fertile pen of Erastus Gaffield, a gentleman of high literary attain- ments and social standing, who has written, under spiritual influence, several very instructive books, among which ''The Past Revealed" deserves dis- tinctive pre-eminence. In that remarkable treatise we find it stated that "Before the existence of inhabitable conditions upon the earth, there were, as now, many planets in the universe, where only rudimentary conditions of life prevailed, inhabited by beings in various stages of evolutionary progress, by multitudes who had attained only very circum- scribed powers of reason, a limited control over Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. 95 weak and imperfectly developed mental faculties, which but partially reflected the intuitions of spirit, and which could not have been used for the investi- gation of the laws of cosmic creation, evolution, or other scientific facts, nor for the teaching of ethical precepts." ''From such very primitive conditions, after having acquired an understanding of certain inherent principles of the Law, graduations some- times occurred. Many aspiring, intuitive ones, hav- ing realized certain degrees of spiritual understand- ing, and having passed out of their physical bodies, entered into celestial states of existence where larger opportunities were afforded for acquiring knowl- edge of the divine principles of the Law, and for a more perfect realization of spiritual aspirations. Such needed not further experiences upon material planes. Vast multitudes, however, required and sought new experiences in physical states, and with- out them could have made Ixit litle progress in the accomplishment of destiny. Therefore it may be said that the 'beginning' referred to in the first verse of Genesis relates to the molding of the plastic ele- ments afore-existent in space, into conditions adapted to the production of such things as physical beings would require when they should appear, who, at first though manifesting only very rudimentary states of intellectual perception, would have certain natural wants, such as air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat. The text in no way relates to the calling into existence of original elements concern- ing which no one can conceive a possible explanation." The first immigrants to earth came without mate- g6 Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations. rialized forms, after having accomplished missions in other planets, while incarnated in bodies adapted to conditions there prevailing. They came gladly hither as to a new Golconda, where they hoped to achieve important victories over the elements and to realize spiritual and material progress when condi- tions should permit them to again assume material bodies." This author then goes on to inform us that those districts of the earth were first inhabited which possesed climates similar to those of the planets from which the immigrants from other worlds had come. *'The regions of the far north were first inhabited by physical humanity. Here for unnum- bered ages lived a race, small in stature, given to the chase, without knowledge of many refinements subsequently realized in latitudes further south, peacefully inclined, the representatives of an order or condition of life like unto that which their prede- cessors had evolved in other planets. It may be stated that the destruction of life-possibilities upon the moon, and the formation of inhabitable condi- tions upon the earth, were coeval." Much teach- ing regarding the "I