The Faithful Spaniel of the French Revolution by Andrew Lang 1914

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The Faithful Spaniel of the French Revolution by Andrew Lang 1914

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No animal, not even the horse, has made itself so many friends as the dog. A whole library might be filled with stories about what dogs have done, and men could learn a great deal from the sufferings dogs have gone through for masters that they love.

Whatever differences there may be between foreigners and Englishmen, there is at any rate none in the behaviour of British and foreign dogs. ‘Love me, love my dog,’ the proverb runs, but in general it would be much more to the point to say ‘love my dog, love me.’ We do not know anything of the Austrian officer of whose death I am going to tell you, but after hearing what his dog did, we should all have been pleased to make the master’s acquaintance.

In the early years of this century, when nearly every country in Europe was turned into a battlefield by Napoleon, there was a tremendous fight between the French and the Austrians at Castiglione in Lombardy, which was then under the Austrian yoke. The battle was hard fought and lasted several hours, but at length the Austrian ranks were broken and they had to retreat, after frightful losses on both sides. After the field had been won, Napoleon, as his custom was, walked round among the dead and dying, to see for himself how the day had gone. Not often had he performed this duty amidst a greater scene of blood and horror, and as he came to a spot where the dead were lying thickest, he saw to his surprise a small long-eared spaniel standing with his feet on the breast of an Austrian officer, and his eyes fixed on his face, waiting to detect the slightest movement. Absorbed in his watch, the dog never heard the approach of the Emperor and his staff, but Napoleon called to one of his attendants and pointed out the spaniel. At the sound of his voice the spaniel turned round, and looked at the Emperor, as if he knew that to him only he must appeal for help. And the prayer was not in vain, for Napoleon was very seldom needlessly cruel. The officer was dead and beyond any aid from him, but the Emperor did what he could, and gave orders that the dog should be looked after by one of his own men, and the wounded Austrians carefully tended. He knew what it was to be loved as blindly by men as that officer was loved by his dog.

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Nearly two years before this time, France was trembling in the power of a set of bloody ruffians, and in Paris especially no man felt his head to be safe from one hour to the other. Hundreds of harmless people were clapped into prison on the most paltry charges, and if they were not torn to pieces by infuriated crowds, they ended their lives on the guillotine.

Among the last of the victims before the fall of Robespierre, which finished the Reign of Terror, was a magistrate in one of the departments in the North of France whom everyone looked up to and respected. It may be thought that it would not have been easy to find a pretext for throwing into prison a man of such an open and honourable life, but when other things failed, a vague accusation of conspiracy against the Government was always possible, and accordingly the magistrate was arrested in his own house. No one was there to help him or to share his confinement. He had long sent away his children to places of safety; some of his relations were in gaol like himself, and his friends dared not come forward. They could have done him no good, and would only have shared his fate. In those dark days every man had to suffer alone, and nobly they did it. Only one friend the magistrate had who ventured openly to show his affection, and even he might go no farther than the prison doors, namely, his spaniel, who for twelve years had scarcely left his side; but though dogs were not yet proscribed, the spaniel’s whinings availed nothing, and the gates were shut against him. At first he refused to believe that his master would never come back, and returned again and again with the hopes of meeting the magistrate on his way home. At last the dog’s spirits gave way, and he went to the house of a friend of the family who knew him well, and received him kindly. Even here, however, he had to be carefully hidden lest his protector should be charged with sheltering the dog of an accused person, and have to pay the penalty on the guillotine. The animal seemed to know what was expected of him, and never barked or growled as dogs love to do; and indeed he was too sad to take any interest in what was going on around him. The only bright spot in his day was towards evening when he was secretly let out, and he made straight for the gate of the prison. The gate was never opened, but he always hoped that this time it would be, and sat on and on till he felt that his chance was gone for that day. All the prison officials knew him by sight, and were sorry for him, and one day the gaoler’s heart was softened, and he opened the doors, and led him to his master’s cell. It would be difficult to say which of the two was the happier, and when the time came for the prisoners to be locked up for the night, the man could scarcely tear away the dog, so closely did he cling to his master. However, there was no help for it, he had to be put outside, lest it should occur to some one in authority to make a visit of inspection to the prison. Next evening the dog returned at the same hour and was again admitted, and when his time was up, he went home with a light heart, sure that by sunset next day he would be with his beloved master.

This went on for several weeks, and the dog, at any rate, would have been quite satisfied if it had gone on for ever. But one morning the magistrate was told that he was to be brought before his judges to make answer to his charge and receive his sentence. In the midst of a vast crowd, which dared not show sympathy even if it felt it, the magistrate pleaded for the last time, without a friend to give him courage except his dog, which had somehow forced himself through guards and crowd, and lay crouched between his legs, happy at this unexpected chance of seeing his master.

Sentence of death was pronounced, as was inevitable, and the hour of execution was not long delayed. In the wonderful way that animals always do know when something out of the common is passing, the spaniel was sitting outside the door when his master walked out for the last time, although it was long before the hour of his daily visit. Alone, of all the friends that he had known and loved, his dog went with him, and stood beside him on the steps of the guillotine, and sat at his feet when his head fell. Vaguely the spaniel was aware that something terrible had happened; his master, who had never failed him before, would not speak to him now. It was in vain to lick his hand: he got no pat in answer. But if his master was asleep, and his bed was underground, then he too must sleep by his side till the morning came and the world awoke again.

So two nights passed, and three. Then his friend, who had sheltered him during these long weeks, came to look for him, and, after much coaxing and caressing, persuaded him to return to his old hiding-place. With great difficulty he was induced to swallow some food, but the moment his protector’s back was turned, he rushed out and fought his way to his master’s grave.

This lasted for three months, and every day the dog looked sadder and thinner than the day before. At length his friend thought he would try a new plan with him, and tied him firmly up. But in the morning he found that the dog had, like Samson, broken through his bonds, and was lying on the grave, which he never left again. Food was brought to him—he never came to seek it himself, and in time he refused even what was lying there before him. One day his friends found him trying to scratch up the earth where his master lay; and all at once his strength gave way, and with one howl he died, showing the two men who stood around of love that was stronger than death, and fidelity that lasted beyond the grave.

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The Mysterious Swastika, article in Rays from the Rose Cross 1920

The Mysterious Swastika, article in Rays from the Rose Cross: A Magazine of Mystic Light 1920

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THE TIME has come when the secret work of the twelve brothers of the Order of the Rose Cross is to be supplemented with a more direct effort to promulgate a definite, logical, and sequential teaching concerning the origin, evolution, and future development of the world and of man. The first principles of this teaching are revealed at a glance to the discerning eye through the emblem of the Rose Cross. But before Mr. and Mrs. Max Heindel were authorized to promulgate in public the rudiments of the Western Wisdom Teachings the Order was, and in certain parts of the world still is, represented by a single white rose in the center of the cross, symbolizing, as explained in the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, the indwelling human spirit, radiating from itself the four vehicles, the dense, vital, and desire bodies, plus the mind.

The name Rosicrucian, however, as well as its emblem, are comparatively modern variations of the same occult teaching which has existed for the initiate brother and sister from time immemorial.

The most primitive antecessor of our modern Rosicrucian Emblem is the mysterious Svastika, the Crux Gammata of the ancient Gammadion Order. This form of the cross is now believed to be older even than the Crux Ansata, the Anch of the Egyptians, our anchor of hope.

The name Svastika is from a Sanskrit word signifying happiness, pleasure, good luck. It is composed of Su, (the equivalent of Greek eu), "good," and asti (Greek esti) "being," "good being," with the suffix ka, (Greek ka. Latin co) forming the substantive. In Great Britain this sign was given the name of "Fylfot," meaning four-footed. But the sign itself existed long before it was named, even before the origin of the Sanskrit language and the Buddhist religion.

To save space we will not burden the reader with an account of the many places in the four corners of the globe where this sign has been discovered by archaeologists, and simply say that it is found in many places, at many times, and under many conditions.

To the ancient Brahmins and Buddhists the Svastika represented the apparatus for kindling fire, and by derivation it became the symbol of living flame, of sacred fire, and thence of the sun.

Now the sun was created on the fourth day. According to the occult analysis of Genesis, the Hyperborean Epoch is there described, and is a recapitulation of the Sun Period. The Lords of Form appeared with the angels and clothed man's dense form with a vital body. Then mankind was plantlike, the skeleton still soft as cartilage, and man's consciousness was like that of dreamless sleep. At the end of the Hyperborean Epoch the earth was thrown off from the sun, and the earth was later followed by Venus and Mercury.

But how could there be light upon the earth when the sun was not made until the fourth day? If the student will consult the original Hebrew, he will find that the word Ur translated "luminary" in the 16th verse, is the same Ur which is translated "light" in the 3rd verse. Therefore the scientist has a perfect right to translate the first Ur in the third verse as "sun," and to reserve the "light" for the fourth day. Furthermore, this is the same Ur which was the birth place of Abraham, and the same Ur which was that mysterious part of the high priest's breast plate called Urim and Thummhn. There the word has the masculine plural ending, proving to us that this Ur was not an ordinary light or an ordinary stone, but the Philosopher's Stone in human form, an Adept, who, together with the other heads of the Hebrew tribes represented by the assembly of twelve stones, answered the questions asked of the high priest. This is also shown by the numerical value of the word, which is 207 or 9, the same as that of Adam, Man. That the Ur created by the Elohim on the first day was not an ordinary light is also taught by John, 1:1-18. And so the Bible teaching is perfectly scientific when it reserves the greater and the lesser lights for the fourth day.

To the Lords of mind, who were human in the Saturn Period, the perpendicular line of the Svastika represented the Divine Spirit, and the horizontal line the dense body; to the Archangels, who were human in the Sun Period, the perpendicular line represented the Life Spirit, and the horizontal line the vital body; and to the Angels, who were human in the Moon Period, the perpendicular line represented the Human Spirit and the horizontal line the desire body. For us the Svastika had no meaning until we came to the Atlantean Epoch in the Earth Period. For in the Saturn Period, when we were like the minerals, our consciousness was trance-like; in the Sun Period, when we were more like the plants, our consciousness was that of dreamless sleep; and in the Moon Period, when we became more like animals, our consciousness was similar to that we have in dreaming. Not until the fourth day, the fourth or Earth Period, does the Svastika represent the four vehicles of the Spirit, the dense, vital, and desire bodies, plus the mind.

And yet, the eternal facts of involution, evolution, and epigenesis cannot be placed in the past or in the future with concepts of space and time; they must be spiritually discerned if they are to be understood. We read, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," and "In the beginning was the Word," and thence we have an idea that millions of years ago God wound up the universe like a clock which has been running ever since. If we should read, "In the end God will create the heavens and the earth," it would mean, that the Word is here and now, and that God is creating the heavens and the earth. There never was and never will be a time when the Spirit was or is not; end and beginning are dreams.

The first dawn of our present waking consciousness appeared in the Lemurian Epoch, when in the intimate contact of the sex relation the spirit pierced the veil of flesh and the man knew his wife. Previous to that he knew nothing of consciousness on the physical plane for he had no memory and was unconscious of birth, pain and death. His wife was the first object he knew as different from himself and the first crude attempt in expressing this knowledge, the first attempt in writing, was made with two lines crossed, representing the sex relation as knowledge or memory, and making the first distinction between the self and the not-self, the knower and the thing known. This knowledge was made possible through the separation of the sexes in the Lemurian Epoch of the Earth Period, which is described by the different creation of Adam from that of Eve in the Bible. In the first chapter of Genesis God created man in His own image; male and female created he them. In the second chapter Adam was formed from the dust of the ground into Nephesh Chayah, or Psyche, which is translated "living soul," while the woman was made later from the "rib" of man. In the first chapter God gave man dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. In the second chapter God commandeth the man.

The making of the woman Isha was brought about through the inability of the man Adam to find a name for himself, because he was as yet both male and female, and had no knowledge of the separation of the sexes. He was at one with all things; he had dominion over them or gave names to them. "And Adam gave names to everything, but for Adam there was not found a help (name) meet for him." Then Jehovah God caused one side or sex of Adam to fall into a deep sleep and to remain latent, while the other sex was fully developed. "And the side which Jehovah God had made latent in the man (Adam)," builded he into a woman (Isha) and brought her unto the man (Adam)." Then the name was found, but it was an entirely different name from that of Adam. "And the man (Adam) said, 'this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman (Isha) because she was taken out of man (Ish).'" He did not call her Adamah but Isha (from iashan, to sleep.)

Let us pause here for a moment and meditate on the divine-human origin of language. God gave man power and dominion over every living thing. (In the Hebrew in verse 28 the word translated dominion is "urdu," written with the connective letter Vav, giving it the numerical value of 216 or 9.) God gave man also reason and language. But He did not give him language in the form of a dictionary, ready made to his use. He did not teach him words from without as we teach a parrot. He did not turnish him with names, but gave him the power of naming, and then evoked that power which He gave. It was not God who imposed the first names on the creatures. He brought them all to Adam "to see what he would call them— and whatsover Adam called every living creature (at the direct suggestion of His Creator,) that was the name thereof." Gen. 2:19

Nevertheless, there are some very important things mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis which God RE-named Himself. What are these? As we cannot ask this question in Hebrew (MI ELH!), where it contains its own answer, (ELOHIM), it shall be done in English. They are just five: darkness, light, the firmament, the dry land, and the waters—or the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, with that fifth element added, "which in the Jupiter Period will unite with the speech, so that words will invariably carry with them understanding." It was Adam who named these elements, but God renamed them and called them night, day, heaven, earth, and sea. In the Hebrew the four elements are called, lam, Nour, Ruach, and Iabesha, the initial letters of which, I. N. R. I., appear elsewhere on the Svastika.

In the second chapter Adam called his flesh and bone woman (isha, num. 306) because she was taken out of man (ish.) In the third chapter, after the serpent had brought the "curse" upon them, he called the name of his wife Eve (Chavah), because she was the mother of all living men.—In the last verse of the second chapter the Hebrew word arum applied to the man and his wife is translated naked; in the first verse of the third chapter, this same word arum, when applied to the serpent, is translated subtle or cunning. So the student is free to translate this word in both cases as the Teacher translated it, when He said, "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." In reading the sacred Scriptures we must never forget that they were originally written in another language, and that there is only one language in heaven while there are many on earth.

In regard to the origin of language it is said in the Cosmo-Conception: "With memory came to the Atlanteans the rudiments of a language. They evolved words and no longer made use of mere sounds as did the Lemurians. The Rmoahals began to give names to things. They were yet a spiritual race, and their soul-powers being like the forces of nature, they not only named the objects around them, but in their words was power over the things they named. Like the last of the Lemurians, their feelings as spirits inspired them, and no harm was ever done to one another. To them the language was holy as the highest direct expression of the Spirit. Its power was never abused or degraded by gossip or small talk. By the use of definite language the soul in this race first became able to contact the soul of things in the outside world."

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WHEN ADAM "knew" Eve, his wife, they became aware that every birth is followed by death and every death is followed by a new birth. This they expressed by lines in the form of a cross representing two human figures, the one standing upright and erect, the other lying dead on the ground. As their memory developed during the Atlantean Epoch, they also learned to count and to use numbers. All man counted at first was his wife, his child and himself, each of them containing the other two, making 3 x 3 or 9 in all. Beyond this number he could not go, for no matter how many children were born to him, every time he added one at a new birth, he had to subtract one at death, thus keeping the number of humanity eternally the same, unchanged either by over population or by race suicide.

According to Professor Wilhelm Branca of Stuttgart, the human race is 30,000 or more years old, judging from certain remains found. The number of men living upon the earth today is about 1,500 millions. At the present rate of increase in population this number would grow in 200 years to 6000 millions, and this would be about the highest number that our Mother Earth could nourish without artificial means. Taking this same rate of the present increase of population and counting backward, we would come to the first pair in a few thousand years, while our records prove that the human race is much older. Therefore it must have increased much more slowly in the past than it does today. However, the sum total of life is the same today as it ever was and ever will be. And that is the answer to the question, why there are not more than 12,000 saved out of each tribe, and also why there are not more than 12 Brothers in the Order of the Rose Cross. In this Order, when one passes on, another takes his place, and so the number is kept unchanged from the 12 sons of Israel to the 12 apostles, sitting on 12 thrones as mentioned in the Revelation.

At the beginning of the Atlantean Period man was very different from anything existing on earth at the present time. The spirit was not quite an indwelling spirit; it was partially outside, therefore could not control its vehicles with as great facility as though it dwelt entirely inside. His powers of perception and vision were much keener in the inner worlds than in the dense physical world, obscured by its atmosphere of thick, heavy fog. He could see his inner or higher vehicles and their relation to the planets and to the higher worlds with the same clearness and distinctness with which we see objects iy the physical world.

The most wonderful and the most powerful of all the occult formulas, which is represented in a diagram facing the title page of the CosmoConception and which was taught in public by Christ Jesus, was not unknown to the early Atlanteans who still retained their inner vision, and saw man as a threefold body, a threefold soul, and a threefold spirit. But here again they found that the number 9 is all inclusive and that they could not go beyond this number. And when the mind was given to them by the Lords of Mind and their consciousness was enlarged, they still divided the universe into 9 regions, beyond which there was merely repetition upon the spiral path of progress.

Counting from (1) the Chemical Region, upward, they found (2) the Etheric Region (3) the Region of Desire, (4) the Region of Concrete Thought, (5) the Region of Abstract Thought, (6) the World of Life Spirit, (7) the World of Divine Spirit, (8) the World of Virgin Spirits, (9) the World of God. There they had to stop, for the World of God contains all the lesser worlds, just as the number nine contains all the lesser numbers and is also their sum when added, which is 36, and 3 plus 6 equal 9. Again, when they counted the planets in the heavens above, they found that they were 9: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Neptune. And as there are an infinite number of planets and worlds contained in the World of God, so there is an infinite series of numbers contained in the number 9.

The connection of all this with the Svastika may not be apparent at first, but if we multiply the four sides or the four feet of this figure with the number of the planets or of the Worlds, we will find that it is itself composed of the number 9, the number of humanity. The different Worlds are represented by the 8 lines of the Svastika as proceeding from one central point, the World of God. They also represent the vehicles belonging to these Worlds. The four dead horizontal lines represent the dense, vital, and desire bodies, plus the lower mind, while the four living perpendiculars represent the Higher Mind, the Human Spirit, the Life Spirit, and the Divine Spirit, all connected and controlled by the Ego in the center.

In the last third of the Atlantean Period man became fully awake in the physical world, but at the same time that the dense, foggy atmosphere cleared and that the full sight and perception in the physical world were gained, the capability of perceiving the inner worlds was gradually lost to most of the people. This inner sight cannot be fully regained until we reach the "New Galilee" through the sixteen races.

The original Semites, who were the fifth and most important of the seven Atlantean races, could see objects clearly which had sharp, well defined contours. They wrote their words in pictures, like the Egyptians, and from these pictures they gradually developed an alphabet which was at first a combination of a picture and a letter. The Hebrew alphabet consisting of 22 letters is made up of pictures, and therefore the letters are called according to these pictures, ox, house, camel, door, etc. These letters are also used as numbers.

The first Hebrew letter, Aleph, looks similar to the right armed Svastika. The word Aleph is translated as meaning ox, showing that it denotes strength and power. In Egypt this letter was pictured as an eagle (love), a feather (wisdom), and an arm (activity). The Aleph combines these three (number 111, one in three and three in one). It is the first letter of the word Elohim, God, and denotes love, wisdom and power; or wisdom, strength, and beauty; or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Since the Hebrew letters are also used as numbers, Aleph is one. Now the Hebrew word for one is, Echod, and the numeral value of this word is 13, and 13 is 1 plus 3 or 4. When we read, "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is Echod," we are taught much more than that Jehovah is one- This one is also 13, and 4. This one is the Tetragrammaton, the four lettered name, Y H W H, or Jehovah, and Jehovah is the highest initiate of the Moon Period. Now it just "happens" that 1 year is made up of 4 times 13 weeks, and that there are about 13 moons in 52 weeks making one year. We need not wonder, therefore, that the highest initiate of the Moon Period, Jehovah, is Echod, or One, and that the numerical value of Echod is 13 and 4.

One of the greatest secrets of the Jews was the true pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, Y H W H, which is written Jehovah in our Bible. But the pronunciation Jehovah is arbitrary and dates from the beginning of the Reformation; the true pronunciation has been entirely lost on account of the very great punishment connected with the vain utterance of this name. It was commanded "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketli His name in vain." (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 24:16). Those who know that life or death may depend on the right or wrong pronunciation of a word and that the success or failure of any great important undertaking may be determined by the mere inflection of the voice, will see the reason for the commandment not to take the name of the Lord in vain.

According to Jewish tradition the Tetragrammaton was pronounced but once a year by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement when he entered the Holy of Holies. It was thought too awful or porteneious for common utterance, hence in reading the Hebrew text it became customary to substitute Adhonay (Lord), or Elohim (God), wherever Y H W H occurred. The Masoretes in the seventh century vocalized the Tetragrammaton with the vowels of Adhonay, thus producing the pseudo-word Jehovah, which passed into English and other languages in the 16th century. Some think that the word should be pronounced Yahweh, but the true pronunciation as well as the origin and the significance cf Y H W H are known only to the initiate.

This word was first used after the birth of Enoch, the son of Seth, who was a son of Adam. (Genesis 4:26). To the patriarchs, Jehovah was known as El Shaddai. In Genesis 6:3 we read: "And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as El Shaddai; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them." (Gen. 6:3). Secret tradition enlightens us as to how the name Shaddai is contained in the names of the three patriarchs. If the last letters of these three words, B, C, M, are transformed by the Atbash, they become Sh, D, I, or Shaddai.

As a symbol of the Tetragrammaton the Svastika is made up of 4 Daleths joined to gether. Daleth, which means a door, is the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and its numerical value is 4. This gives to the sign the number of 4 times 4, or 16 Daleth is also a symbol of initiation. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved." John 10:9. This letter gives a special meaning to the Hebrew word for one, Echod, the first two letters of which, Ech, mean a brother.

In this connection it would be interesting to study more thoroughly the very first word with which the original Bible begins and in which the whole Old Testament is contained as in a nutshell; but this would lead us too far from the subject. However, the word Bereshit, "in the beginning," has exactly the same numerical value as the word Echod, that is, 13 or 4, and indicates at once the four ways of reading the Sacred Scriptures, which are Pshat, Ramaz, Darash, and Sud—the initials of which lead us into PaRaDiSe. It also reminds us of a big "house" built upon a square base with the sides pointing to a common "head" or vertex, where the writer of Genesis, Moses, the Egyptian prince and magician, had learned many things which he did not write, but communicated to his disciples from mouth to ear.

The Great Pyramid of Egypt is not a dead pile of stones but a living thing for those who have eyes to see. From it went forth the secret teachings of the Jews and the mysteries of the Greek. It is a symbol of the greater world as well as of the lesser world, and its Greek name, Pyramis, has therefore the same numerical value as the word macrocosmos, also the word microcosmos, namely 831, or 4 times 3 equal 12. The twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve months of the year, divided into 4 seasons of 3 months, and the measures of the whole universe are built into the Pyramid, from which also originated that mysterious breastplate of the Jewish High Priest, made of twelve stones arranged in 4 rows of 3, which later became the foundation of the New Jerusalem. And if we multiply the number of the Pyramid with itself, 12 times 12, and add to the number of the elect, 144,444, the number of humanity, we get the same number which Simon Peter found when he counted the fishes in the unbroken net, "an hundred and fifty and three"

The Greeks wrote the fourth letter in their alphabet in the form of a triangle representing divinity. They had learned much from the Egyptians and also from the Hebrews. The New Testament was written in Greek, and John begins the fourth Gospel with the same word, "In the beginning," as the writer of Genesis who wrote in Hebrew. "In the beginning was the Word." The Greeks also taught more in the mysteries than they did in public, and they, like Pythagoras, expressed their wisdom in numbers, for numbers constitute a universal language. They are understood in all languages in all parts of the world. Studying mathematics also has the advantage that it keeps one "dry;" we do not get excited over it as we do over a political platform.


IN THE BEGINNING was the Word." The Greek word for Word is Logos, and Logos, the Word, as well as Logeion, Reason, have the numerical value of 13 or 4; the former is numerically 238, the latter 373. The name of the Teacher of angels and men, Christos, numbers 1480; again 13 or 4. Moreover, the word Ichthys, or Pisces, which is composed of the initials of "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour," numbers 1219, again 13 or 4. The Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name, was known to the Greeks, but instead of writing it YHWH, with 13 above and 13 below, or with 4 Daleths or doors, in which form it numbers 16, they used their third letter Gamma, and wrote it with 4 Gammas, in which form it numbrs 3x4 or 12, as a symbol of the Pyramid. The reason for this change we find in astrology.

Astrology, which is spiritually based upon the Law of Consequence, is too old a science to be discarded by the "scientist" who now calls it astronomy. There would be no astronomy and no chemistry if it were not for astrology and alchemy. There would be no Cosmos if it were not for Chaos. The astrologers mentioned in the Bible were led by a star to the new-born King of the Jews, and after they had found Him they returned into their own country another way. We are not told how these Wise Men obtained and figured the horoscope of the new king, but enough is said to teach us that the birth of Christ marks an important event in the Astrological Era. It was this great event of the birth of Christ that changed the arms of the Svastika from left to right.

Chronologists have never been able to figure out the exact year of Christ's birth. There have been at least 18 different eras used in measuring time, and the student is sometimes in doubt whether the year of light, or the year of the world, or the Christian year is meant. The trouble with most of these eras is that they begin with some memorable event here upon earth, such as the foundation of a city or a declaration of independence. The astrologer, on the other hand, measures time by the heavenly time-keepers, which constitute the Clock of the Universe and are never out of order. The Astrological Era begins with the year 25,835 B. C. According to the astrological records Christ was born 33 B. C. He died on the Cross in the year 0, when the sun by precession crossed from the first degree of Aries to the last degree of Pisces, to begin a new Sidereal Year; and the Ruler of the New Age rose (again) on the first day, of the first week, of the first month, of the first year A. D. And the astrological year corresponding to 1920 A. D. is the the year 1422 A. D., for according to the Christian Era the sun was in the first degree of Aries at the equinox in 498 A. D.

The life of Christ marked the end of the old Sidereal Year and the beginning of the new, and this the astrologers expressed in the symbol of the sun by changing the arms of the Svastika from left to right. That the Svastika was not merely a letter or a figure composed of letters, but also a symbol of the sun, is shown in the sign itself when written with 4 Daleths where it has the numerical value of 4 x 4 equal 16; for if we make 16 squares in the form of 4 rows of 4 squares we get a figure of the heavens with the sun in the center.

There is one law for the atom, the man, the sun. As the sun travels through the 12 signs of the zodiac, which are divisions of the heavens producing the 4 seasons, spring, summer autumn, and winter, so man travels through the 12 houses, which are divisions of the earth, going through infancy, youth, manhood, and old age.

The 4 principal events in a human life are birth, (which is itself fourfold), education, attainment of social standing, and death, and these are indictated by the 1st, 3rd, 10th and 8th houses as shown in the diagram above. In addition, a child coming from the heaven world and born into this world, carries with it as heredity the experience of a previous journey through the 12 houses, which can be added to the 1st house, giving it the number 13; for the numerical value of 12 plus 1 is 13, as said before.

The Svastika, then, is a symbol of the atom, the man, and also of the sun, and its arms corresponded to the old and the new Sidereal Year of 25,868 ordinary years. Of course, we also find the left-hand Svastika in the New Age and the right-hand in the old, but that need not disturb us. The meaning of this sign will also become more and more glorious as we advance from the Earth Period to the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods. We have made three and one-half revolutions of the Earth Period and obtained a mind by means of which our bodies will be consciously perfected during the present Aryan Epoch and the following periods. During the present Aryan Epoch the Svastika represents the 4 vehicles, dense, vital, and desire bodies, plus the mind. In the Jupiter Period the horizontal line will represent our present animals, who will then be human, while the perpendicular line will represent our intellectual soul which we shall have extracted from the vital body. In the Venus Period the horizontal line will represent our plants, who will then be human, while the perpendicular line will represent our emotional soul which we shall have extracted from the desire body. And in the Vulcan Period, when our present minerals will be human, the Svastika will represent the Creative Word, "through whom all things were made."

There are, then, two forms of the Svastika, the left-armed and the right-armed. The former has the numerical value of 16, the latter of 3 x 4 which the initiates often wrote as 34. The former is a symbol of the 16 races, the 16 paths to destruction; the latter is a sign of initiation into the 9 (3x3 or 33) lesser mysteries, and of liberation (1). The candidate must pass through the former before he can reach the latter. The former is the symbol of the involuntary clairvoyant whose sense centers of the desire body are spinning around to the left or counter-clockwise (following negatively the motion of the earth which moves on its axis in that direction). The latter is the sign of the trained clairvoyant whose sense centers of the desire body are spinning around to the right, clockwise, or in the direction of the hands of a clock.

The Svastika is left-armed when seen from the front, and it is right-armed when seen from behind. Where the two forms are combined, the Svastika represents the visible and the invisible side of nature and of man.

When both forms of the sign are represented together by means of their mystical numbers, the Svastika unfolds into a magic square in the following form, which should be compared with the previous diagram.

In this diagram the left Svastika is represented by the visible squares numbered from 1 to 16, while the right sign is represented by the invisible sum of 3x4 or M. These 16 squares are the 16 paths to destruction which the candidate must safely pass, before he can attain initiation into the nine lesser mysteries (33), and find liberation through the Thirteenth (1).

This diagram illustrates the hermetic axiom, "As above, so below; as within, so without." In this diagram add any line of numbers above or below, within or without, or any square of numbers, above, or below, within or without; the sum will be the same. Again, the sum of the paths has numerically the same number as the Liberator, for 1 plus 6 equal 7, and 3 plus 4 equal 7; and so the number of the Liberator 13, corresponding to the sign Aries, the Lamb, and to the 1st house in the inner square occupies the same place and the same space as the number 7 in the outer square. And if we add the inner 13 or 4 to its opposite the outer 13 or four we get the sum of the Tetragammaton, the four lettered name Y H W H, whose numerical value is 26.

Returning now to our own Svastika, the wonderful emblem of the Rose Cross, with which we started, we find the left armed, visible sign represented by a Circle of seven roses, while the right armed, invisible sign is represented by a pure white Roman Cross or Square having three half circles at the end of each of the four arms. From the center of this Cross radiates the five-pointed, golden Star. The problem here presented among other things is to find a square which shall be equal in area to that of a circle with a given radius. To solve this problem we must know the ratio of the circumference of the circle to its diamater, and this we learn from the Pentalpha, (Pentacle, Pentagram), the five-pointed Star. The five points of this Star are made up of the five letters of the Hebrew word Elohim, A L H I M. If we write the first letter Aleph on the right upper point, and the other letters of the word in their order around the circle to the left, because Hebrew is written from right to left, the last letter M will fall upon the right lower point and the letter L will stand at the top. If we now read the same letters around the circle to the right or clockwise, starting with the letter L at the top, we get this arrangement: L A M I H. The numerical value of these letters in their order is 30, 1, 40, 10, 5, Leaving out zero we get 3.1415—and this is the ratio which we sought.

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About the Name LUCIFER by James Comper Gray 1876

About the Name LUCIFER by James Comper Gray 1876

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Lucifer, radiant one; the morning-star. Heb. Heylel, fr. halal, to shine." cut down, hewn down. The metaphor is here changed, and the fig. taken from the demolition of the Asherahs, or idols erected to Ashtoreth (i.e. Venus, or the morning star).

Lucifer.—There is no name we know so abused and misapplied as this truly beautiful name. Lucifer, the light-bringer, is the Latin equivalent of the Greek Phosphoros, which is used as a title of our blessed Lord in 2 Pet. i. 19, to which corresponds the phrase "bright and morning star" of the Book of Revelation (xxii. 16). Applied to Him the epithet is most expressive, for He is the true Light who enlightens every man who cometh into the world, and who has shed a flood of light upon life and immortality. But, unfortunately, the name has been given, almost appropriated, in the first place, to Satan, the "prince of darkness," who is the enemy and destroyer of light in the souls of men. The misapplication and degradation of a noble name arose, in the first instance, from a mistranslation and misinterpretation of Isa. xiv. 12, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O brilliant one [or bright star], son of the morning!" Our translators have used the word Lucifer here, and expositors—later ones slavishly following the earlier, such as Tertullian—have referred the whole passage, which is a highly poetical and beautiful description of the king of Babylon, to the devil; and so in common speech the evil one, who has no light in him, has been named Lucifer. And now, by as widespread an abuse of the word in these countries, it has been degraded as the designation of the common match. The match is more a lucifer, and bears the name more righteously, than the ruler of the kingdom of darkness; yet how tiny a lightbringer it is! What a come-down one feels to be in such an application of the word! The writer of the article "Lucifer" in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible remarks, "Its application, from Jerome downwards, to Satan in his fall from heaven, arises probably from the fact that the Babylonian empire is in Scripture represented as the type of tyrannical and self-idolising power, and especially connected with the empire of the evil one in the Apocalypse."

On the word "Lucifer" in The Intellectual repository for the New Church 1868

How the term "Lucifer," which, as just said, signifies bearer or bringer of light, should ever have been applied to Satan, the supposed prince of darkness, is a matter of wonder. The history of this false interpretation, however, is known: it was an error of the early fathers of the Christian church. "Tertullian and Gregory the Great," says Kitto, "understood this passage of Isaiah as referring to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name 'Lucifer' has since been applied to Satan, and this is now the usual acceptation of the word." But Dr. Henderson, who, in his "Isaiah," renders the line "Illustrious son of the morning," justly remarks, in his annotation:—"The application of this passage to Satan, and to the fall of the apostate angels, is one of those gross perversions of Sacred Writ which so extensively obtain, and which are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in a given passage than it really contains,—a disposition to be influenced by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received interpretations. The scope and connection show that none but the king of Babylon is meant."* By the king of Babylon is signified the same as by Babylon, just as the king of Egypt signifies the same as Egypt,—it being a rule of interpretation that the king or head of a country has the same representation as the country itself. The passage, therefore, as already explained, has reference solely to the fallen or corrupted church, signified by Babylon.

On Lucifer by Lewis Spence in An Encyclopædia of Occultism 1920

Lucifer : Literally light-bringer, a name applied to the conception of the devil, who has often been likened to a fallen star or angel. The Miltonic conception of Lucifer as a force potent for good or evil, one who might have done good greatly, intensely proud and powerful exceedingly, is one which is inconsistent with enlightenment. He represents simply the absence of good; a negative not a positive entity. He presides over the east, according to the ideas of the old magicians. He was invoked on Mondays, in a circle in the centre of which was his name. As the price of his
complaisance in appearing to the magician he asked only a mouse. Lucifer commands Europeans and Asiatics. He appears in the shape of a beautiful child. When he is angry his face is flushed, but there is nothing monstrous about him. He is, according to some students of demonology, the grand justiciary of Hades. He is the first to be invoked in the litanies of the Sabbath.

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Transformation and Lycanthropy in History by Frank Hamel 1915

Transformation and Lycanthropy in History by Frank Hamel 1915

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How did man come to change into an animal? Folklore and superstition describe a number of ways. The most common method appears to have been the wearing of the skin of the animal in question. One drew it over one's shoulders, mask and all, and awaited results. These were not always satisfactory, and if any delay occurred it was better to strip off the clothes, rub the limbs with a potent ointment and murmur a long incantation. Such things, if we may believe tradition, invariably did the trick. But there were many other ways of bringing about the desired state. According to Grimm, transformation could be effected by tying a strap of human skin round the body; others say the skin must be a girdle made from the animal's hide.... It also sufficed to shift the buckle of a certain strap to the ninth hole. To drink water out of the footprint made by the animal, to partake of its brains, to drink from certain enchanted streams, to haunt the lair of a wer-wolf, to eat his food or come into personal contact with him or his belongings were all means of voluntary or involuntary transformation which, according to its nature, might be permanent or merely transitory. Livonian wer-wolves were initiated by drinking a cup of beer of a special character accompanied by a particular incantation. Other countries had magical procedure which differed in detail, if not in the main features. As a rule the devil was supposed to have had a hand in the transformation process, and one man accused of the crime declared that a female devil had presented him with a belt and whenever he buckled it he was changed into a wolf spontaneously. This gentleman, when he was back in human shape, was always heard to remark in surprise that he had not the faintest idea where the bristles went which had adorned him when in wolfish form.

A return to human body was sometimes easy, sometimes extremely difficult. The girdle or skin being removed was often sufficient to remove the enchantment too. Plunging into water or rolling over and over in dew were said to be equally efficacious. A considerably slower method was to kneel in one spot for a hundred years, long enough, one would imagine to deter anyone from ill-judged ambitions to prowl around the world in animal shape. Other cures, however, were simpler, such as being saluted with the sign of the cross, or to be called three times loudly by the baptismal name, or to be struck three blows on the forehead by a knife, or to have three drops of blood drawn from some part of the body. In many cases one other person besides the transformed man was in possession of certain formulæ necessary for restoring him to a normal appearance, and if by any accident this person was killed or otherwise removed from the sphere of action, woe betide him in animal shape, for he probably had to retain it during the rest of his natural existence.

There is a legend in Lorraine that if stalks of grass are pulled up, blessed and thrown against a tree, wolves spring forth, being transformed from the men who threw the grass. To become a she-bear it is only necessary to put a slip of wood into one's mouth; when the wood is taken out human shape returns.

Another myth, mentioned by Grimm, is that at certain times of night wer-wolves turn into three-legged dogs and can only be freed by someone crying out "wer-wolf."

Seven and nine are important numbers in transformation. When seven girls are born of one marriage, one is thought to turn into a wer-wolf and the seventh child of the seventh child is predestined to the same fate. The spell is said to last nine days. Anyone who puts on a wolf-shirt is transformed into a wolf for this period and returns to human shape on the tenth day. Grimm says the seal is supposed to doff his fishy skin every ninth day and for one day become a man, and there is a common saying that a cat twenty years old turns into a witch, and a witch of a hundred turns back into a cat.

Having taken the body of a beast, man becomes known as a wer-animal, wer being probably derived from the Latin vir. He then assumes the characteristics of the natural animal, with additional strength, agility, and ferocity.

In mediæval times powers of transformation seem to have been sought after and were even regarded as a privilege. Although often acquired for evil purposes, among primitive peoples to change into an animal did not necessarily imply a descent in the scale of being. To them there is but a slight line of demarcation between the animal world and mankind. They are not influenced so much by the idea of human degradation as by a beautiful belief in the brotherhood and fellowship of all creation.

Lycanthropy is the technical name for the pathological condition of a man who believes he has become an animal. The word means literally wolf-man, the wolf being chosen as the most dangerous animal known in European countries, though the tiger, hyæna, or any other wild animal serves the purpose equally well.

The symptoms exhibited by the wer-animal are at first extreme restlessness and anxiety. He develops, sometimes instantaneously, sometimes by degrees, the instincts of the kind of creature into which he has been transformed, often acquiring enormous strength and the special characteristics of the animal. If it be carnivorous by nature he has a lust to kill, and he can do what the animal does as well as what he was naturally capable of doing. His body is in the shape of an animal, but his eyes, according to some accounts, remain unchanged, and the human being looks out of these windows of his soul. His intelligence will probably, however, be darkened by the shadow of malignity or passion usual to the lower creation.

As early as 1579, Wierius described lycanthropia as a disease, and declared the Arabs called it Chatrap, after an animal. Another name was Tipule. (Latin race.) The victims had sunken eyes and could not see well, the tongue was dry and they were thirsty, the saliva being dried up. To cure them they had to be well-fed, much bathed, and given drugs which were used in melancholic diseases. Before an attack the head was rubbed with soporific herbs, opium was applied to the nose and the patient was dosed with a narcotic.

When under the delusion that he is changed into a wolf the wer-animal gives vent to a long howl and starts off with a rush to the nearest forest, where he prowls about through the night seeking his victims. These he kills in the ordinary manner of a wild beast, tearing asunder their limbs and feasting on their flesh. In some countries his method is more elaborate and it is supposed that the wer-wolf, having chosen his victim, exerts certain occult powers to numb his faculties and, cutting up the body, extracts the liver, which he eats and then joins the parts of the body together again so that the friends of the dead man know not how he came to lose his life.

Having satisfied his thirst for blood, the man-wolf, at the wane of his madness, once more seeks human shape, and then it is probable that he suffers for his abnormal appetites. Reaction leaves him weak and debilitated, with dry throat and tongue, feeble vision, hollow and discoloured cheeks, and sore places where he was hurt by his victim struggling for life.

Some subjects of lycanthropia, or imitative madness, endure still greater horrors, and the case of a patient who trembled with terror at his own condition is quoted by M. Morel in his "Études Cliniques." "See this mouth," he cried, touching his lips with his fingers, "it is the mouth of a wolf, and see the long hairs which cover my body and my paws. Let me bound away into the woods so you may shoot me there!" When his family endeavoured to caress him, he cried out that they were embracing a wolf. He asked for raw meat, the only food he could touch, but on tearing it apart he found it not to his liking as it had not been freshly killed. Thus he went through the tortures of the damned until released by death.

Another victim of the disease is mentioned by Fincelius in his second Book of Wonders. He says that "at Padua in the year 1541 a certain husbandman did seem to himself wolf, and did leap upon many in the fields, and did kill them. And that at last he was taken not without much difficulty, and did confidently affirm that he was a true wolf, only that the difference was in the skin turned in with the hairs. And therefore that, having put off all humanity and being truly truculent and voracious, he did smite and cut off his legs and arms, thereby to try the truth of the matter, but the innocency of the man being known, they committed him to the chirurgeon's to be cured, but that he died not many days after. Which instance is sufficient to overthrow the vain opinion of those men that believe that a man or woman may be really transubstantiated into a wolf, dog, cat, squirrel or the like without the operation of an omnipotent power."

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In spite of the unpleasant consequences with which lycanthropy seems to be connected there is little doubt that transformation used to be regarded as a useful and sometimes even profitable relaxation. Those who were already initiated into its mysteries were generally willing to help others to obtain proficiency, and a draught from the hand of an expert was considered enough to produce the desired condition in the novice.

Predestination to become a wer-animal is thought to be distinguished by some peculiarity in the appearance, such as the meeting of the eyebrows, and the tendency to transform is believed to wax and wane with the seasons and to be subject to the influence of the moon.

The head, claws, and hairy skin of a wer-wolf are like those of a real wolf, but the great test of identity lies in his lack of tail, and in his clothes, which are sure to be found not far from the scene of slaughter.

When doubt is felt whether a wer-wolf is a human being or a real wolf, steel or iron is thrown at the animal under suspicion. When this is done to a genuine wer-wolf the skin is said to split crosswise on the forehead and the naked man comes out through the opening. Sometimes the wer-wolf is frozen with the cold and then he is invulnerable to ordinary weapons. The only way to wound him is to shoot at him with balls of elder pith or bullets of inherited silver.

When the victim is attacked by a human animal the injured person's clothes are stripped from his body. The genuine animal tears them in shreds. If the wer-animal has been transformed by means of a strap of human skin, his tail is then certain to be truncated.

In the following Hessian folk-story, which concerns a poverty-stricken married couple, a large ring was used to bring about the metamorphosis.

The wife always contrived to have meat for every meal and the husband never knew how she managed it. After much questioning she agreed to tell him, and taking him to a field where sheep were grazing she threw a ring over herself and became a wer-wolf. She seized one sheep and was running off with it when the man, who had promised not to call her by name during the performance, cried out, "Oh, Margaret!" and as he did so the wolf disappeared and the woman stood there with no clothes on.

A very similar story is told of a nobleman who fell short of food while traversing a wide tract of country in Russia with a party of friends. He transformed himself into a wolf and caught several sheep, which provided an excellent meal for the travellers.

In India a story is current that there was once a man who was able to change himself into a tiger, but who found it very difficult to resume his normal shape. When he wished to become human again, it was necessary for a particular friend of his to cite a certain formula. The friend died and as this catastrophe limited the tiger-man's powers he determined to teach the proper formula to his wife.

A few days later, having enjoyed a glorious hunt and devoured several antelopes, he trotted up to his wife in the disguise of a tiger, hoping she would not forget how to work the spell. When she saw the dangerous monster approaching her she began to scream. The animal jumped round about her, trying to remind her by dumb show of what she had to do, but the greater efforts he made the more frightened she grew and the louder became her cries. So annoyed was the man-tiger by her aggravating stupidity that he thought, "This is the most irritating woman I ever saw," and, flying into a terrible passion, he attacked and slew her. Then to his regret he remembered that no other human being knew the incantation necessary for his release and that he would have to remain a tiger for the rest of his days. He grew to hate all human beings after that and killed men whenever the chance occurred.

In the Sanjor and Nerbudda territories there is a saying that if a tiger has killed a man he will never slay another, because the dead man's spirit rides on his head and forces him to seek more lawful prey.

Some African tribes believe that tailless tigers are transformed men, probably because the wer-animal is frequently said to have no tail.

In early Christian times the wer-wolf was often regarded as a victim of the evil machinations of a sorcerer. There is a story in the seventh century of a man-wolf who defended the head of St. Edward the Martyr from the onslaught of other wild beasts. The apostles Peter and Paul, according to a Russian folk-tale, turned an evil-minded husband and wife into bears as a judgment for their sins.

An object which may have been an inducement to transformation was the hope of acquiring second sight, a gift with which many animals are thought to be endowed.

In the last century in France a connection of the old loup-garou existed in the person of the meneur des loups, who was said to have the gift of charming or taming wolves, which followed him across waste lands on midnight rambles after the style in which the rats followed the piping of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

The loup-garou of the French is found in Italy under the name of the lupo manaro or versiero. The lupo manaro of the Middle Ages was a witch dressed as a wolf, but the same term was applied to a certain hobgoblin who was peculiar to the city of Blois and whose chief occupation seems to have been to inspire deadly fear in young children. The lupo marino, which might be thought to be another kind of wolf, is the name of a most ravenous fish, which does not appear to have had human attributes.

The great Gaston de Foix, known as Phœbus, who is famed for his book on the chase, expresses his opinion that the term garou in loup-garou is an ellipse of the phrase gardez-vous.

When wolves grew scarce in England it became the fashion for those who wished to be transformed to change into cats, weasels, or harmless hares; rather a mild amusement after the adventuresome exploits of the man-attacking beasts of prey, but one which led to some extraordinary proceedings akin to black magic.

In some old French Records the account is given of a man who buried a black cat in a box at a spot where four cross-roads met. In the box he placed bread soaked in holy water and holy oil, sufficient to keep the animal alive for three days. His intention was to dig up his innocent victim, slay him, and make a girdle of his skin, by which means he expected to be able to transform himself into an animal and gain the gift of clairvoyance. Unfortunately for his projects, however, the buried animal was exhumed by hounds. The whole affair came to public knowledge and ended in the courts, where the guilty man was condemned for sorcery.

Another man whose friend threw doubts on his power to change into animal shape, quickly turned into a wolf to prove that his comrade was wrong and, being set upon by a pack of dogs, was deprived by them of one eye before he could resume his normal appearance.

A thief acted more cleverly. Being condemned to the gibbet, he saved his skin by taking the form of a wolf directly his would-be executioners opened the door of the cell in which he was imprisoned. During the panic of dismay which greeted the sight of him, he escaped into the woods.

One of the most marvellous stories of wer-wolves is related by Giraldus Cambrensis in his "Topography of Ireland." A priest was journeying from Ulster to Meath accompanied only by a single youth when they were benighted in a wood.

They had kindled a fire when a huge wolf approached them and spoke, telling the travellers to fear nothing.

The priest adjured him by all that was sacred not to do them harm and begged him to say "what creature it was that in the shape of a beast uttered human words."

The story told by the wolf is as follows:—

"There are two of us, a man and a woman, natives of Ossory, who, through the curse of one Natalis, saint and abbot, are compelled every seven years to put off their human form and assume that of wolves. At the end of seven years, if they chance to survive, two others being substituted, they return to their former shape. Now, she who is my partner in this visitation lies dangerously sick not far from hence. I beseech you, inspired by divine charity, to give her the consolations of your priestly office."

The priest followed the mysterious speaker into the thicket and performed the rites of the Church over the dying she-wolf, as far as the last Communion. But the wolf was not satisfied, and begged him to complete his good offices. The priest said this was impossible as he was not provided with the wherewithal for giving the viaticum. Then the man-wolf pointed to the priest's neck, suspended round which he carried a missal and consecrated wafers, entreating him not to deny the aid provided by Divine Providence. To remove the priest's doubts he tore off the she-wolf's skin and exposed the body of an old woman. The last Communion having been given, the wolf replaced the skin and reverently thanked the priest for the benefit which he had conferred.

These representative incidents go far to show how deeply ingrained is the belief in transformation among primitive people, but it is necessary to go back still further into the origins of folk-lore to discover the bedrock of thought in which the human-animal theory takes its rise.

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A Critique of Edward Bellamy's LOOKING BACKWARD by C.A.F. Lindorme 1890

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A Critique of Edward Bellamy's Socialist Science Fiction Book LOOKING BACKWARD by C.A.F. Lindorme 1890

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Modern science, in its application to moral philosophy, it would appear, stands again before the Sphinx of social life, missing the wand to make it speak the releasing word. But what in heathenish antiquity and in Christian revival the eccentricity of an ideal apotheosizing was inadequate to perform for the individual, our strictly scientific arguing accomplishes, by giving the individual its right place in society, and reflecting its responsibility upon the latter. The individual roots with its being in society, and society, as a matter of course, or of equity, enters with its share of responsibility. And as here, to the same degree as with the individual, the maxim obtains, that prophylaxis is preferable to cure, it is in the behaving of society towards the individual, by education, guidance, elevation, that the dire doom is mitigated to which the individual is exposed at the hands of unrelenting fate.

Thus socialism?

Never! Socialism is subjugation, and we want freedom. Socialism forces us into a system. We force unto the freedom of the will. The power by virtue of which socialism pretends to overcome all difficulties is discipline, outward compulsion. The power by which we aim to establish happiness is love, spontaneity. There is no human quality which by socialism is more utterly annihilated than independence. Than independence, mental selfhood, there is no human quality which by our proposition is more apt to develop into gratifying beautiful proportions.

Socialism is right enough in its negative critique. It is an absurdity in its positive propositions of reform. The socialistic theory complains of the actual fetters of society, and to release of these fetters it invents a system the very idea of which is fettering, binding all future development, in a mummification worse than ever were Egyptian castes, upon an invention of the present. The adherents to the socialistic dream revolt against the supremacy of privileged classes bearing down the poor, and the remedy, which their dream of happiness conjures up in their morbidly excited imagination, is an extension of the mental misery from which they suffer to all those who so far escaped the despotism of those privileged classes. The so-called laboring classes, by which illegitimate generalization a special branch, the laborers of manufactory, designate themselves, as though besides themselves laborers there were none on earth, suffer by a tyrannizing industrial system, in which all independence is stunted in the outset by an illimited sway of capital, and the remedy, which they devise against such tyranny, is a system where the very breakfast-table, to begin with, is never more subjected to individual will and pleasure. The industrial laborers rightly criticise the iniquities which are enacted by the power of legalised corporations, and the remedy they plan against these iniquities is, to make out of mankind one single corporation, pick out as the releasing form of human organisation the very organism which is known now as the moil of humanity.

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There is a book out with the title, “Looking Backward,” by Edward Bellamy, which by a superficial critique is considered to be an illustrative strengthening of the socialistic theory.

Nothing more illusory than this opinion. The book, if not explicitly, is implicitly an endorsement of our standpoint. The means of which Bellamy avails himself to make his narrative possible is, what in scientific literary language is called a petitio principii; in his book all the agencies which act toward the desired end are virtuous. Now, then, how do they get so; how is this most desirable of all ends brought about? Bellamy, in order to flatter the socialistic prejudice, gives as cause the taking of society to Socialism. But this is an absurdity, not to say sneaky psychology; it ignores willfully the weighty truth that the freedom of human will, in which and from which only moral reform can be borne, is not a gratis gift of nature, but a conquest of the mind; it lets morality, virtue, instead out of an individual effort of the mind, soul and intellect, result from the establishment of a mere outward form; the highest aim of striving humanity and the deepest intimacy of exerting man, from a petty arrangement of the more inferior points of human life.

There could not have been written a book more convincing, for those who want to see, of the fallacy of the socialistic hypothesis, than “Looking Backward,” by Edward Bellamy, and well may the socialistic leaders, with regard to it, say:

“May friendly fate preserve me of fair friends, 
And I don't fear to face my fiercest foe.”—(Schiller.)

It is an admirable talent which the author of “Looking Backward ” displays, in showing that the socialistic system of utter abolishment of individuality, and of the merging of the same into the uniformity of general equality, in want and affluence, in wealth and penury, in eating and drinking, working and loitering, studying and recreation, is impossible, except by complete elimination from among the springs in society of egoism, and the installation, as sovereign ruling powers, of love and virtue. But there is no greater fallacy than the one on which Bellamy's book rests, that there can be found a system, or that the socialistic system be one, which eliminate egoism from among the springs of society, and establish love and virtue as the ruling power, quite machinalement, without any moral leverage of man. The contrary is the truth. Eliminate egoism from society, establish love and virtue as the ruling powers, and we may leave it as a pastime for lunatics to make systems for society.

Reason Magazine looks at Looking Backward.

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Adam's First Wife - Lilith, 1906 Article

ADAM'S FIRST WIFE - Lilith, article in Metaphysical Magazine: A Monthly Review of the Occult Sciences 1906

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When Adam was created, the woman Lilith was also brought into existence with him. But when they attempted to set up housekeeping, there quickly came a misunderstanding. Adam asserted that he was to be head and master. Lilith replied that she had a right to be chief, equal to him. But Adam insisted on supremacy. Lilith, enraged, uttered the spell shem hamphorash. Instantly wings appeared on her body and she flew away.

Three angels were sent after her and overtook her at the Red Sea. They begged her to return. She refused, declaring that Eden would be no paradise to her if she was to be subject to the will of man. A doom was pronounced on her that she would be the mother of many children, but they would all die in infancy. She was about to drown herself, when they qualified the sentence, by giving her power over all children for eight days after birth, on condition that she would molest none of them after that period who came under the protection of the angels. Hence, Jews place a charm upon the babes hoping thereby to screen them from her influence. The baptism of children is hoped to be equally beneficial.

But Lilith did not give the controversy up so readily. There being no help now remaining meet for Adam, the woman Eve was formed under conditions which should avert the agitating of the question of woman's rights. For a little time everything went on swimmingly in Eden. Adam literally reveled in a "Fool's Paradise," with the fancy that he had escaped a great annoyance. But there was evil in store.

Late on the sixth day of creation, the devils had been created, but too late in the day to have bodies of flesh and blood. They had only atmospheric forms. At the head of the seraphs in Heaven was Samael. He rebelled and became Prince of Darkness. A seraph is a "fiery serpent" (Number xvi) and he, Samael, became "the great Red Dragon, the Old Serpent" mentioned in the Apocalypse. The name Samael signifies "the left side of God." He met Lilith and she became his consort. He was radical as she on the question of feminine equality. He gave her a retinue as splendid as had been given to Eve. But she was not content. Learning that Adam had been consoled by the possession of a second wife, who was her inferior in beauty, but had won all by submissiveness, she conspired with Samael to put an end to all that. Making her way to the gate of Eden, she persuaded the serpent warden at the gate to lend her his form. Then going in she had but to make her way to the Tree of Knowledge, draw Eve to the place, and persuade her to taste the forbidden fruit.

From that time Lilith has continued her malignant offices. She is always young, always beautiful, always destructive. She is the ogre of the wilderness that lures young men and destroys them. Her favorite agent of destruction is unrequited affection. Her golden hair fastens the victim irresistibly to his doom. The Hebrew prophet names her as dwelling in ancient Idumea (Isaiah xxxiv, 14.) "Lilith shall dwell there and find for herself a place of rest."

The story of Lilith is found in Arab legends obtained from rabbinic sources. The name signifies Night, and she is invoked by nurses to soothe their children to sleep. The chant "Lilith abi" has become the familiar lullaby and there are those who regard the modern women's movement for political equality as a later repetition of the experience of the first man in the Garden of Eden.

Lilith by Lewis Spence 1920

According to Wierus and other demonologists, Lilith was the prince or princess who presided over the demons known as succubi. The demons under Lilith bore the same name as their chief, and sought to destroy newborn infants. For this reason the Jews wrote on the four corners of a birth-chamber a formula to drive Lilith away.

See also Lilith and Jewish Demonology by W.O.E. Oesterley 1921

The Vengeful Brood of Lilith and Samael by R. P. Dow 1917

Lilith, Adam's First Wife 1884

The Lilith Legend by James A. Montgomery

Jewish Demonology by Kaufmann Kohler 1918

Lilith, Demonology and Vampires, article in The Century 1873


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Egyptian Superstitions by James Grant 1880

Egyptian Superstitions by James Grant 1880

See also Babylon, Sumer and Ancient Egypt - 200 Books on DVDrom

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Egypt was a country steeped in superstition. The people believed in sorcery, magic, and enchantments; and there is the fullest evidence in the sacred pages that the Egyptian magicians were able to perform dexterous feats that were truly surprising. Astronomy was studied with a view to success in astrology, as the latter was a science much esteemed, and very lucrative. Public or state astrologers were consulted in cases of emergencies. None dared to practise astrology, magic, sorcery, or any of the various modes of divination unless authorised by a master in the art, before whom he had "spread the carpet" for prayer. To procure sublime visions, seers shut themselves up for a long time, without food or water, in a dark place, and prayed aloud until they fainted. While in a swoon, strange visions appeared to them, and revelations made which sometimes filled the nation with gladness, and at other times spread mourning over the country. In advanced ages, as well as in early times, men believed there were a multitude of subordinate spirits, as ministers, to execute the behests of the supreme sovereign. To these spirits were committed the superintendence of all the different parts of nature, and their bodies were imagined to be composed of that particular element in which they resided. Altars were built in the midst of groves, where the spirits were supposed to assemble. Gratitude and admiration tended to the deification of departed heroes and other eminent persons. This probably gave rise to the belief of national and tutelar gods, as well as the practice of worshipping gods through the medium of statues cut into human form. At one time demi-gods gradually rose in the scale of divinities until they occupied the places of the heavenly bodies. Thus, following ancient hyperbole, a king, for his beneficence, was called the sun, and a queen, for her beauty, was styled the moon. As this adulation advanced into an established worship, the compliment was reversed by calling planets or luminaries after heroes. And to render the subject more reconcilable to reason, the Eastern priests taught that the early founders of states and inventors of arts were divine intelligences, clothed with human bodies. When celestial divinities disappeared or were obscured from observation, men had recourse to symbols of a temporary nature that produced fire. Altars of stone were built and consecrated in the name of the divinity whom it was intended to represent. Such altars were called animated or living stones, from a belief that a portion of divine spirit resided in them, and the prayers and praises offered up before them were thought to be as acceptable as if addressed to the gods themselves. That those altars or stones might be as near as possible to the objects of worship represented, they were generally placed on the tops of mountains, or, in flat countries like Egypt, on high structures, the works of men's hands. Many have attributed the building of the pyramids to the worship of gods; but whether that was the purpose to which those majestic structures, that have puzzled learned men, were devoted, we shall not venture to say. This, however, is certain that, throughout the East, altars, statues, and pillars were erected for superstitious purposes upon mountains and other high places.

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Herodotus informs us that the ancient Egyptians were the first people who gave names to their gods. Of Osiris, Isis, and the many other gods and sacred animals that were worshipped in Egypt, we shall say little at this part of our subject. The bull, it is well known, was one of the most sacred animals. The priests affirmed that Apis was of divine origin, the cow that produced him having been impregnated with holy fire. Dogs, the Egyptians said, deserved homage because they guided Isis when she searched for the body of Osiris. She, it may be remembered, sought for the precious remains with true pertinacity till she found them. To accomplish her purpose, she found it necessary to transform herself into a swallow, to dry up the river Phœdrus, and to kill with her glances the eldest son of a king. Her tears were supposed to cause the inundation of the Nile. At times she had the head of a cow, which identified her with the cow of whom the sun was born. The hawk was deified because one of these birds brought to the priests of Thebes a book, tied round with a scarlet thread, containing the rites and ceremonies to be observed in the worship of the gods. The wolf was adored because Osiris arose in the shape of that animal from the infernal regions, and assisted Isis and her son Horus to battle against Typhon. The cat was revered as an emblem of the moon, for its various spots, fruitfulness, and activity in the night. The goat (which, by the by, is said to be absent from the earth and present with Satan a part of every twenty-four hours of the day, and can never be seen from sunrise to sunrise without being lost sight of for a longer or shorter time) was honoured as the representation of manhood in full vigour, and was worshipped, from gratitude to the gods, for multiplying the people of the country. The crocodile was also advanced to the dignity of a god. If one killed any of the sacred animals designedly, he was put to death,—if involuntarily, his punishment was referred to the priests; but if a man killed a hawk, a cat, or an ibis, whether designedly or not, he died without mercy. During a severe famine, when the Egyptians became cannibals, not one of them was known to have tasted the sacred animals.

All revered animals were kept at great expense, and when they died costly funerals took place. When the Apis died at Memphis, in the reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, his funeral cost not less than £13,000 sterling. When a cat died, the family it belonged to expressed great grief, and prayed and fasted several days. In cases of fire, more care was taken to preserve the feline animals than the most valuable property in the house. Dead cats, which were almost invariably embalmed, were sometimes carried from remote parts to be interred in the city of Bubastis, and hawks and moles were buried with great solemnity at Butos, even though they should have died in foreign countries. Juvenal mentions that leeks and onions were objects of worship, and others say that the lotus was also sacred in various parts of the East. The priests were both physicians and interpreters of oracles; they carefully observed the phenomena of nature, and registered every uncommon occurrence. From such observations, they calculated the results of other events of similar nature. Hence arose the practice of divination, and afterwards that of dispensing oracles. Oracles were erected in every part of Egypt. Even the sacred animals had their several oracles. The Apis was consulted by observing into which of his chambers he entered. By a certain principle understood, the omen was regarded as foretelling good or evil.

The barbarous custom of sacrificing human victims was long in force in Egypt, and prevailed down to the reign of Amasis, by whom it was abolished. Not to give too severe a shock to the superstitious feelings of the people, wax figures, representing human beings, were permitted to be substituted for the living mortals. These customs were, no doubt, what sorcerers and witches imitated at their midnight feasts in after ages, and which led old women to imagine that, by making wax images of those whom they intended to injure, and sticking sharp instruments into them at one time, and at another time exposing them to a scorching heat before a fire, they would wreak their vengeance upon the individuals whom the figures represented. We have it from more than one learned writer, that the cruel and gloomy worship of Egypt arose from a belief that Typhon was labouring incessantly to counteract the happiness of mankind. He was considered to be greedy and voracious, and that it was necessary to glut his altars with blood in order to appease his anger.

Magic was a science in which the Egyptians excelled. Its attainment was esteemed the highest exertion of human intellect. Some imagined that the invention of magic exceeded human invention, and they pretended that the angel who fell in love with the antediluvian women taught it, and that the principles thereof were preserved by Ham after the Deluge, and that he communicated them to his son Mizraim; but others ascribed the invention to Hermes. Without either admitting or denying these assertions, we can have no hesitation in stating that much of our superstition may be traced back to Egyptian religion and customs, and that the singular belief of the Egyptians was general, and long anterior to the time Jacob and his sons went down to that country.

The Egyptian priests, taking advantage of the people's credulity, taught that the sun, moon, and whole host of heaven were endowed with intelligence, and exerted an influence over the destinies of men; and they (the priests) pretended to work miracles, and obtain oracles and omens. They also laid claim to the power of interpreting dreams.

The Egyptians believed that the souls of men went into other bodies at death,—such as had been virtuous going into exalted bodies, but the vicious passing into mean reptiles and other contemptible creatures. After remaining in a state of punishment for a certain number of years, they were supposed to pass into more exalted beings. Praise was not bestowed indiscriminately upon every person who died, however exalted his position. Characters were given by judges, after inquiry into the life and conduct of the deceased. The judges sat on the opposite side of a lake; and while they crossed the lake, he who sat at the helm was called Charon, which gave rise to the fable among the Greeks, that Charon conducted the souls of deceased persons into the infernal regions.

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