Masonry And Magic.

MASONRY AND MAGIC .

W"E are often surprised whilst glancing over old Avorks upon art magical , by finding therein represented many of the signs and symbols current in Masonry , to which occult virtues and mystic correspondencies are attributed . Endued with geometrical properties and the infinite poAver of Numbers , the pentagon , tho seal of

Solomon , and the cubic-stone laid open or the Latin Cross , are constantly cited as keys of wisdom , and essential auxiliaries to spells and conjurations of every kind . Magic is a vague word . In modern times , scarcely tAVO of its professors even , can be got to agree upon its exact

scope and definition . So much of Avhat was formerly accounted "supernatural" is now Avithin the domain of science , that for most of tho subjects which yet remain to be elucidated , wo ought rather to substitute the term

" unaccounted for , or , m the case of psychic , or spiritual phenomena " supra-mundane . " For we may be well assured that nothing , under the Great Architect , can be " super-natural . "

Public professors of Magic proper havo been , in modern times , feAv in number . If Ave may judge of a professor by the estimate of himself propounded in his writings , then AVO may conclude at once that the greatest practitioner this century has knoAvn Avas the late Louis Constant , of Paris .

Under tho nom-de-plnme of Eliphas Levi , he published , between the years 1859 and 18 G 2 , tho folloAving , Avhich he directs his disciples to study in clue sequence : — " THE

DOGMA AND RITUAL OP HIGH MAGIC , " tAvo vols ; " Tnu HISTORY OP MAGIC , " and " THE KEY OF THE GREAT MYS - TERIES . " These works may therefore be considered to sum up his views of the question .

\\ ith him , AVO have this advantage over the Avorks of the ancient and mediaeval mystics , that the body of his theory is openly dissected and displayed , the soul only left to the discernment of the explorer ; whereas previous writers , adopting a jargon and labyrinthine plan only intelligible to

themselves , have left both body and soul concealed from the search of the profane . From Levi Ave get an insight into the ancient universal belief in " the soul of the world , " or , as he prefers to call it , " the Astral Light , " in Avhich all live and move and have their being , AA'hich , again , is

resolvable into the all-pervading " Spirit " of the teachers of modern spiritualism , which is held to inform and determine the material properties alike of the molecules of air , Avater , minerals , vegetables , animals , and all . Unlike modern spiritualists , Levi attributes all unexplained phenomena to

the action of will-power or of correlated occult forces , over the fluctuations of this universal plastic medium , "the Astral Light , " Avhich holds , as it were , indestructibly pictured Avithin its depths a reflection of every thought , word , act or thing that has been since the Creation . And thus

Avhen mysterious voices or apparitions are to be accounted for , he finds their echoes or shadows existing in " the Astral Light , " materialised for the nonce by forces which act under occult laAvs . The knoAvlcdge of these laws , or rather of these conditions , is what ho calls " Ma ° ic . "

It is , hoAvever , noteworthy that this theory fails to account for such phenomena as levitation , or the passage of solids through solids , of Avhich Ave have apparently Avell-attested accounts . The hand Avhich Home caused to appear upon the table before Napoleon III ., and Avhich allowed itself to

be saluted as that of his uncle , might have been a materialisation from "the Astral Light , " but the repeated elongations of his body witnessed by Lord Lindsay and others cannot thus be accounted for , unless npon the supposition that the reporters became intoxicated or

hallucinated by occult vibrations of that mystic element . We may not deny the occurrence of supra-mundane phenomena , because charlatans have been detected in imitating them . Things which public curiosity renders so profitab l e naturally prompt mercenary scoundrels to simulate . We must

remember that the fact of supra-mundane action Avill be proven , as much by the movement of a pin without known cause against known natural law , as bv an apparition or a prophecy . Professor Crookes , discoverer of the motive force of light , has , amongst others , convincingly proved , by id scientific

rig demonstration , the existence ' of the occult forces which surround a genuine " medium , " and Avhich act upon ponderable bodies in opposition to the known laws of Nature . The testimony as to some " apparitions" of the Spiritualists is almost as strong , but proof of the existence of the occult force in its most trivial manifestation suffices

Masonry And Magic.

for argument . To tell investigators of mtalligent and disciplined minds that they have been deceived by conjurors or by their own senses , is no rebutter of their statements ; more rational are the explanations of Eliphas Levi . Pity it is that tho rank and file of mankind are so timid

Avhen confronted Avith anything new , their first unreasoning impulse being to cry out against it for the purpose of reversing their position and of frightening it away . Vain impulse ! the neAV thing , if not true , will vanish of itself ;

if true , not all the thunders of Jove will scare it . And more than pity it is , that the popular press , living upon public opinion , should have to shriek in unison Avith crude human impulse , instead of having the moral strength to investigate and to oppose impulse iu the interest of truth .

It is noteAvorthy , hoAvever , that of late certain leaders of the press have been posing for a change of front in their treatment of spiritualism ; the latest remarkable essay on that subject in the Westminster Review going even so far as to predicate of it — " tho germ of the Religion of tho Future . "

Amidst some display of vanity and some transcendental flights of national self-glorification , native to a one of le pmnle le plus sp > irituel du monde , Levi lets ns HOAV and then into dim chambers of exquisite imagery , when on mysterious themes or illustrating the arcana of psychology and

physiology . We are therefore led to hope that , amongst some rubbish , we may light upon precious stones , and with tho vieAv of folloAving up the symbolic relationship of

Masonry and Magic , Ave will first clip into his pages , ^ hey are mystical enough , but radiance itself compared Avith those of Engenius Philalethes or his predecessors . He recapitulates the Gnostic formula ) : —

" When men know how to live , they will die no more , but will be transformed , as the chrysalis is , into a brilliant butterfly .

Ihe terrors of death are tho offspring of onr ignorance , and death itself is only frightful from the debris which covers it , and the sombre colouring of its images . Death is , in truth , only the work of Life .

" God did not create Pain . Intellect accepted it , in order to be free . ( This is an explanation of myths , both Aryan and Semitic , Avhich account for tho origin of evil . ) As tho eye only perceives Light by its faculty of opening and shutting-, as being always open it would be the slave of Light ,

so created Intellect is only blessed in acknowledging God through its faculty of denying Him , in doing Avhich it still affirms its liberty . Thus , oven blasphemy will glorify God ,

Avhose perfect service is perfect Liberty . Once God was All , and All Avas Light . When God said , ' Let there be Light , ' he allowed Darkness to reveal the Light , and out of Chaos came the Universe . "

Of the Serpent Tempter of Genesis , " Wha-Nahash haiah haroum mi-chol haiath ha-shadeh ashorhashah Ihoah yElohim , " he says , dissecting the word Nahasch thus—14 Nun—Tho force which produces compounds . 5 He—The passive reproductive principle or the recipient . 21 Schin—The natural and central fire balanced b y double polarisation , that , by the cabalistic interpretation which he claims to give

, ex cathedra , the universal magic agent is intended , symbo-Psed in all theogonies by the Serpent , to which the Hebrews gave the name of OD Avhen active , of OP . Avhen passive , and of Aour Avhen fully revealed in its balanced force—in other Avords , " tho Astral Light . " ( To be continued . )

Master of the Apollo Lodge ( Rev . H . A . ' Pickard , Christchurch ) , that a telegram had just been received from India , from the Prince of Wales , in which his Royal Highness appointed Prince Leopold as Provincial Grand Master of Oxfordshire .

At the anniversary festival of the Alfred Masonic Lodge M . Jules Bite , M . A ., Magdalen College , Avas installed as Worshipful Master for the ensuing year . The ceremony was performed by Bro . W . Thompson , the retiring Master . In the course of the evening it was announced , by the

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