[Page 3] THE word Occultism is derived from the Latin Occultus, meaning hidden and secret, and by it we understand the science of the secrets of Nature — physical and psychic, mental and spiritual — called Hermetic and Esoteric sciences.

The world generally has ceased to believe in anything of the kind, though the attention of a small section of the community has been drawn within the last few years to the Theosophical Society and kindred movements, having for their professed object and end the study of psychic power inherent in man, alleged Occult phenomena, magic and mysticism.

It is not my intention tonight to seek to prove the existence in the Universe of powers and possibilities of which mankind have as yet not dreamt; this I take to be quite unnecessary, for as each year rolls by new facts are being continually discovered within the ordinary limits of scientific research which necessitate revisions in our text books and prove the inadequacy of former theories.

If the science of the secrets of Nature — in the occult and mystic sense — is unknown to modern research, it is because modern research is not adapted to the investigation. You cannot employ material instruments to examine the nature of the soul, or of spiritual beings. It will be obvious to anyone who gives any thought thereto that, if there is such a thing as noumenon to phenomenon: spiritual principles underlying physical laws: these things are not and cannot of their nature be susceptible of ordinary demonstration. If man has a soul this must underlie and form the basis of his physical senses, which latter are adapted to the physical plane alone and cannot be employed to cognise spiritual things. Science has barely dealt with these matters at all, and this department of human knowledge has by almost universal consent been relegated to religion, religion to guide and regulate life. If one looks at the religions of the world, one is struck by the fact that they all arise and have their origin in a primeval revelation of some sort, generally contained in a recognised collection of sacred writings, regarded as the work of inspired authors. Experience, however, shows that religious creeds suffer — like human, beings — from a species of constricting selfishness, becoming crystallised into set forms, not infrequently due to priestly influence and more than likely entirely foreign to the intention of their founders. Creeds may be regarded as the personalities resulting from the incarnation or expression [Page 4] of certain types of religious belief. But although the religious instincts have ever played an important part in human life, these when unfortified by the reason render religion as much a failure as science.

Now there are two great factors at work in Humanity, Intellect and Heart, typified respectively by science and religion: one cannot get on without the other in Occult research, and while the student of theology fails to comprehend the real inner meaning of apparently absurd dogmas, and the man of science to attribute consciousness and intelligent directing power to the Universe, both will wander still, so far, at any rate, as the secrets of Nature are concerned.

The Occultist, then, derives his impetus to the within and the beyond, from those instincts which we call respectively religious and scientific, the yearning hunger of the soul for peace and understanding. A thinker, he seeks to comprehend not merely effects but causes. Before him is ever the most tremendous mystery conceivable to human thought, that of his own being. Whence am I? Whence the world around me ? Such arc the questions he sets himself to answer.

It is upon the answer which men give themselves to this serious questioning that depends very largely the attitude taken up with regard to life and the use made of it.

The service which the Occultists have ever rendered to the world is to furnish explanation of the phenomena of life and death, based, on experimental research of a psychic, mental and spiritual nature. By arcane methods they are believed to have pierced the solemn veil enshrouding mortal life, to have transcended the limits of terrestrial consciousness: and their experience has been recorded for the benefit of those who are prepared to consider it.

Where, it will be asked, shall we find these records ? I answer, throughout the Mythologies and Religious Scriptures of the world, and that any conscientious student who is prepared to look beneath the surface will find a remarkable unity pervading apparent diversity: the great mass of these records are only to be understood esoterically, i.e., as having a veiled significance. Indeed, any other supposition is an insult to human intelligence, and through non-recognition of this fact, the religious of Christendom have been generally befooled; though the remark does not equally apply to the ancient nations of antiquity or even to the modern Oriental races, who in this matter are more intelligent.

I do not propose to fill this paper with learned extracts from ancient authors, or to bring forward a mass of historical evidence in favour of the existence of the Occult sciences. I shall treat of the more practical aspect of this subject, and briefly sketch the broad principles upon which the practice of Occultism, both past and present, and of the so-called magical sciences, may be said to lie. [Page 5]

"These sciences" (says Blavatsky), " are, and have been for ages, hidden from the vulgar, for the very good reason that they would never be appreciated by the selfish educated classes, nor understood by the uneducated, whilst the former might misuse them for their own profit, and thus turn the divine science into Black Magic." [See Glossary under Occultism]

It is moreover undoubtedly true that to the ordinary mind both the Esoteric philosophy and the Qabbalah are full of an unintelligible and meaningless jargon, but if you will only pause and try to realize the exceedingly subtle nature of spiritual things, it will become clear how difficult it is to convey Occult ideas in language without a corresponding spirituality in the person who considers the matter. It will therefore be obvious that the majority of people are not suited to such study, and in order to prevent misapprehension, I would point out that there is a great difference between the philosophy of Theosophy and the study of Occultism — the former having to do with theories and ethics, and the latter with their practical application.

So many able exponents of the more practical aspects of Yoga and Indian philosophy already exist in the ranks of the T. S., that I propose to leave out of consideration the Asiatic world — confining my attention to points of interest in Egyptian, Hebrew, and mediaeval European lore.

The magical traditions of Ancient Egypt have succeeded in investing their history with an altogether romantic interest: and the theories of the priestly colleges have been curiously reflected in the notable Occult literature of later date.

The main underlying conception upon which Occultism turns is that man, the little world, is the reflection of the greater; that all the great forces of the Universe find their analogy upon a smaller scale in the constitution, spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical, of the human being. It is upon this theory that Occultism stands or falls, and the mere formulation thereof is in itself one of the most profound keys with which to unlock the mysteries of man's own nature. Just as the drop of dew reflects the whole surrounding Universe which it is possible for it to do, so every microcosmos or little world reflects in its own fashion the macrocosmos or greater world after a certain formula: — and this law does not obtain solely with regard to man in his relation to the Universe, but with every sentient thing or being. For example, taking the human microcosm, one can easily understand why the heart, as the central motor of the body, should be compared to the sun of our solar system, the source of life and light, and believed to be in sympathetic relation therewith. Hence the magnetic influence of the sun, the moon, the planets, and the constellations being recognised by the ancients, both in regard to their influence upon the earth [Page 6] and upon man, the child of the force's, they sought to establish a regular correspondence between them, allotting to each of these forces a colour, a sound, a number, and a form. In this way a geometrical form, together with its corresponding colour and sound, were regarded as expressing to human consciousness some one or other of the forces of the greater world. Now to the Occultist a form, indeed any form, is the expression of some interior quality; and it was by harmoniously combining these correspondences, and by concentration bringing the consciousness on to the plane of the force symbolized, that knowledge was obtained of its meaning. That forms were connected with sound has long been recognized by the ancient schools of Occultism.

Before going further, it will be well if I draw your attention to an important consideration of Occultism, and that has reference to the action of human consciousness. Every man alive may be said to have a certain range of states of consciousness up and down the gamut of which he is perpetually oscillating, but there is no reason to suppose that the consciousness of any two people is the same — let alone that of a number. How often a casual word dropped thoughtlessly by another makes you realise in what an entirely different world he lives — how differently he views life to what you do. While therefore experiences, and therefore consciousness, must differ greatly in human beings, yet it is possible to predicate certain limits which the normal human consciousness does not transcend, and within which indeed it functions. Occultism engenders a higher key-note of consciousness than that which is normal: it involves an extension of consciousness in the direction of divine and spiritual things — with a corresponding restriction, and even complete cessation of that functioning in the lower and more animal part of the nature. In other words, the tendency is towards the elimination of what may be called the "automatic consciousness" of animal appetites and desires, and the stimulation of the consciousness to a higher level than that of the merely intellectual. Those who have not experienced such higher states of consciousness in their own lives may be inclined to doubt their possibility in others, but surely the gap between the purely animal consciousness and the intellectual consciousness is sufficient to justify a similar negation of the latter on the part of the entirely animal man ?

But if specially high and lofty states of consciousness are the result of occult development, — on the other hand, special means are taken to secure that end. This at once brings us to an exceedingly practical consideration, the question, namely, of whether any, and if so what, mystic virtues reside in Sound, as affecting human consciousness. Nobody will find any difficulty in admitting that music does engender certain states of consciousness. Maspero says: — [Page 7]

"The human voice had, and still has amongst most Oriental nations, a power not attributed to it by Europeans. It is the magical instrument, above all others, without which the highest operations of the art cannot succeed." [Creation by Voice and the Ennead of Hermopolis, Lecture by Maspero, page 1]

These ancient Egyptian incantations are of course identical with the Indian mantrams: they produced visions in the persons making use of them and helped towards the concentration of the Will to effect given purposes.

The clairvoyance, or vision of the soul was thus rendered active, and the consciousness directed towards the divine light sensed the simulacra Deorum, — the forms of the Gods, or powers of that light. lamblichus in explaining such visions says that they "may be comprehended in one power, which may be called the education or drawing forth of the Light." He says: —

"This illuminates with divine light the ethereal and luciform vehicle with which the soul is surrounded, from which divine visions occupy our phantastic power, these vision being excited by the Will of the Gods. For the whole life of the Soul and all the powers that are in it, being in subjection to the Gods, are moved in such a way as the Gods, the leaders of the Soul pleases." [ Iamblichus’ De Mysteris AEgyptiorum, Taylor’s translation.]

"The Platonists", says Psellus, "assert that Light is spread under divine substances, and is rapidly seized, without any difficulty, by some who possess such an excellent nature as that which fell to the lot of Socrates and Plotinus. But others", he adds, "at certain periods, experience a mental alienation about the light of the Moon".

This latter observation has reference to the occult effect of the Lunar influence upon psychic conditions. It has long been recognised by Occultists that the position of the Moon in certain signs greatly tends to stimulate the lucidité astrale and as in human life there are times and seasons, so a knowledge of these in the Occult sense renders magical effects much more possible than they would be at other and less propitious periods. [Page 8]

Pythagoras is said to have taught that the numbers from one to ten, taken in regular progression, symbolized the creation of the Universe ; and to each of the celestial bodies a distinctive musical note or tone was attributed. Therein, he was only following upon much older Egyptian teaching: for Maspero tells us that "The theology of Heliopolis represented creation as effected by a series of muscular efforts and violent acts of the different Gods of the Ennead, which gave the world the form it now bears". [Ennead of Hermopolis] This Ennead or set of nine divinities is simply the power of the Three Trinities which are resumed in the number Ten. According to the same authority, another and more refined aspect of this doctrine attributed creative effect to the simple emission of the voice, — i.e., sound. It was no doubt from ancient Egyptian teaching that the Jews borrowed their doctrine of the Ten Sephiroth, or Voices, for sounds and melodies are. appropriately consecrated to the gods.

"There is, also", says lamblichus, "an alliance in these sounds and melodies to the proper orders and powers of the several Gods, and to the motions of the Universe itself".

A similar idea is to be found in the "Dream of Scipio". [Cicero]

"lamblichus relates of Pythagoras that he once extinguished the rage of a lad, who in a fit of great exasperation intended to commit murder, through the Doric song of a piper. When a certain youth also rushed with a drawn sword on Anchitus, the host of Empedocles, because, being a judge, he had publicly condemned his father to death, and would have slain him as a homicide, Empedocles changed the intention of the youth by singing to his lyre that verse of Homer,

Nepenthe, without gall, o'er every ill
Oblivion spreads.

"And thus snatched his host Anchilus from death, and the youth from the crime of homicide. It is also related that the youth from that time became the most celebrated of the disciples of Pythagoras. Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school, by certain appropriate songs, produced what they called exartysis, or adaptation; synarmoga, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact, usefully conducting the dispositions of the souls to passions contrary to those which it before possessed. For when they went to bed, they purified the reasoning power from the perturbations and noises to which it had been exposed during the day, by certain odes and peculiar songs, and by this means procured for themselves tranquil sleep, and few and good dreams. But when they rose from bed, they again liberated themselves from the torpor and heaviness of sleep, by songs of another kind. Sometimes, also, by musical sounds alone, unaccompanied with words, they healed the passions of the Soul, and certain diseases, enchanting, as they say, in reality."

After this manner, therefore, Pythagoras, through music, produced the most beneficial correction of human manners and lives.

Respecting the actual composition of the magical sounds composing [Page 9] invocations by the voice alone, as distinct from those in which speech was employed, one feature is very notable, viz., the predominance of the vowel sounds.

According to the old Gnostics, the seven mystical vowels were attributed to the seven planets: and a modern author (Koenig) assigns certain notes of the musical scale as characteristic of the simpler vowel sounds. These ascend in a gradually increasing rate, the lowest vowel sound U corresponding to 225 vibrations and the highest to a note of 3,600 vibrations. per second. Vowels ensoul the Consonants, which latter are only expressed by their aid.

These vowels have also geometrical symbols allotted to them, but to go into details would not be possible within the limits of this paper.

Coming to mediaeval times, a rather interesting passage occurs in the Fama Fraternitatis, a small tract published in 1614, at Cassel, in Germany (and to which we are indebted for our knowledge of the existence of the Rosicrucians) — it runs as follows: — "In another chest were looking-glasses of divers virtues, as also in other places were little bells, burning lamps,. and chiefly wonderful artificial songs, . . . " meaning by the latter formulae of words and sounds to which magical effects were ascribed.

An old mystic writer has said: " He who will acquaint himself with the secret of the Lagash — i.e., of mystical speech or incantation — shall learn the secret of secrets! " And it was upon the same principle that it was said concerning the true pronunciation of the great name, "He who can rightly pronounce it, causeth heaven and earth to tremble, for it is the Name which rusheth through the Universe!" But modern science will have to understand something more about Occult physiology before these statements can be understood, and, as the effect and potency of sound vibration have been universally recognized throughout the history of magic, it is certainly worthy of our careful study on that account.

Having dealt with the theory of vibratory sounds, I will just glance at the media which may be so vibratorily affected, and thereby certain states of consciousness induced. This brings us at once to the consideration of how far physical conditions affect spirituality and psychic activity.

The conditions laid down from the most ancient times for success in Occult practice imposed great restraints upon the candidates both as regards their mental, moral and physical being: long fasts, and, generally, abstinence from animal foods being the special means employed. According to Ovid [Metamorphoses (Persephone rapta) the priests of Eleusis never ate at all during the day, but only at night, when the stars had appeared. The priests of Egypt abstained from even eggs and fish; while similar motives appear to have always animated the [Page 10] adept, recluse and saint in religion. All this, put shortly, simply means that the physical molecules of the body — whether gross or the reverse — were believed to directly affect the question of psychic and spiritual sensibility. It is, however, no doubt true that many went to extremes in this direction and adopted processes of bodily mortification which could do little good but a great deal of harm. But over and above the mere physical aspect of man's constitution, another and important factor is what I may term the magnetic aura of the individual, the dual streams of life, positive and negative — a feature recognised by Egyptian lore ages ago. This latter was primarily the medium of theurgical operations, it was polarised, or directly affected by, physical conditions, and it is no doubt in this connection that Jamblichus made the remark that "He who understands the nature of divinely luminous appearances will know also on what account it is necessary to abstain from animal food".

So much then for man, the microcosm, or little world: let us now turn our attention to the greater world or macrocosm, remarking simply :that what is true of the one is no doubt true of the other.

"The universal Aether was not, in the eyes of the ancients, simply a tenantless something, stretching throughout the expanse of Heaven; it was for them a boundless ocean, peopled like our familiar earthly seas, with Gods, planetary Spirits, monstrous and minor creatures, and having in its every molecule the germ of life from the potential up to the most developed." [H.P.B. on Elementals, vide Lucifer for August, 1893]

"When you shall be numbered among the children of the philosophers", says the Comte de Gabalis, "and when your eyes shall have been strengthened by the use of the most sacred medicine, you will learn that the elements are inhabited by creatures of a singular perfection, from the knowledge of, and communication with whom, the sin of Adam has deprived his most wretched posterity. Yon vast space stretching between earth and Heaven has far nobler dwellers than the birds and the gnats; these wide seas hold other guests than the whales and the dolphins; the depths of the earth are not reserved for the moles alone; and that element of fire which is nobler than all the rest was not created to remain void and useless."

Detailed information respecting the conditions of elemental life and the functions in the Universe fulfilled by elemental and kindred spiritual beings is jealously guarded by the guardians of Occult secrets. lamblichus says that what he calls Daemons, "who", to use his own words, "are distributed according to parts, and who guard the parts of the Universe, pay so much attention to the parts over which they preside, that they cannot endure a word contrary to the safety of these". And hence it is that when through curious research secret avenues of enlightenment have been opened up to individual students of the Mysteries, placing them in the possession [Page 11] of dangerous secrets — such have inevitably been bound over to absolute silence. But why, it may be asked, does not everyone see the teeming life of these elemental kingdoms ? The answer is that man's senses only correspond to vibrations within a given range, and that just as in physical science there are invisible rays of colour at each end of the spectrum, called ultra-violet and ultra-red, more powerful perhaps than the visible rays, and only detected by a special operation — so the unseen forces of the world really guide and control those which are manifested. Porphyry says that "Ignorance, darkness and evil attend the soul in its lapse into the body" and according to Servius, "the soul when it begins to descend into the body drinks of oblivion". The perceptions of humanity are thus restricted to the avenues of the physical senses. Yet, I would ask, do we not know, as a matter of physical science, now well ascertained and recognised, that Nature abhors a vacuum. If we take a microscope and avail ourselves of its vast magnifying powers, we perceive lives on lives, which had we simply relied upon our physical senses, we should neither have dreamed possible, or believed in.

The so-called elementals, the dwellers of the elements, have many grades and classes, stretching from comparatively insignificant lives up to the supermundane orders.

It is these forces which are controlled by the Occultist and through the agency of which Occult phenomena are effected. Ages ago they were not only recognised by Occultism but classified and named, i.e., names and sigilla were used to express these forces — names which it was considered even dangerous to utter in certain places at certain times and seasons. Such indeed is the Occult meaning of that verse in Genesis where it is said "Adam gave names unto all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field". If it be asked how it is that the Occultist is able to utilize these powers, I would answer in the words of lamblichus, who says:

"It is requisite, therefore, to understand that the Universe is one animal; and that the parts in it are, indeed, separated by places, but through the possession of one nature hasten to each other." [ Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis AEgyptiorum. Taylor]

In the light of this passage, it will be more easy to understand how the Occult doctrine of signatures arose. Every force in the Universe was expressible by a formula or similitude, by the operation and expression of which it was aroused to action. For whatever has but a casual similitude to, directly participates in these forces. But in order to wield such power the Occultist must be something more than man. This is well explained by lamblichus where he says: —

"The Theurgist, through the power of arcane signatures, commands [Page 12] mundane natures, no longer as man, nor as employing a human soul ; but as existing superior to them in the order of the Gods, he makes use of greater mandates than pertain to himself, so far as he is human." [Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis AEgyptiorum. Taylor]

Above the elemental kingdoms the Souls and the Angels have place, and behind these again in infinite gradations the principalities and powers and those greater forces of the Universe we call Gods. From the highest to the lowest all sentient lives comprehended in the one great ocean of Life; infinitely more reverend this conception than any dwarfed and limited dogmatism. In this view the devils and archangels alike exist only with the divine permission, for in the divinity they have their being. Hence it was said:

"Whither from thy spirit shall I go ? or whither from thy presence shall I flee ? If I ascend up to heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there also."

People may say that the effects ascribed to magic are all imagination, but I would ask such to pause and ask themselves whether they know what imagination really is — whether it is not possible that in the human imagination there may not lie a divine and creative power. Medical men will tell you of the extraordinary rule exercised by the imagination over the nervous system and how a great shock affecting the imagination will have an actual physical result. Cases have been known where the hair of persons who have passed through trying and terrible experiences has turned white in a single night; and if one studies the phenomena, well-ascertained phenomena, of hypnotism and mesmerism, one finds that imagination plays a part which is but little understood in our own day. Occultism has long recognised that in the human imagination lies hid a divine and creative force, and I do not hesitate to say that many of the greatest magical results have been due to the exercise of a trained imagination coupled with a knowledge of correspondences — the correspondence, that is to say, of the little world which is man, with the greater world which is the Universe, and the interaction of the respective forces of each. I would even go further and say that the whole experience of life is calculated to train the imagination and the thought, for the two are really not separable, one being simply the extension of the other. The very word imagination shows you the connection it has with thought: Imago = image, representation or similitude. Occultism teaches that every thought that you think evolves a form — that such forms coalesce with certain elemental forces and thus gain a certain inherent life of their own. In this way a man who has lived all his life evolving evil thoughts and developing the animal rather than his higher and divine nature, has generated a force, or series of forces, which react upon him, their creator, and indeed may be [Page 13] said to be the machinery of Karma. Every man is in this view the exact result of his own creations which impel him to the fulfilment of his destiny, and which indeed are destiny. Such thoughts have a term of existence proportionate to the intensity of the volition which generated them; they can either in their turn be the source of fresh creations of a kindred nature, or, as it were, have their time shortened by the will of their creator, Man. Now here comes in one of the great considerations which has ever powerfully influenced the Occultist: — Man, the lower quarternary, is, as it were, the playground of the forces, the forces that is to say, of good and the forces of evil. It is in his power, to give the victory to whom he will, and being the Creator, he is also the Destroyer, but, with the explanation I have given, the old-world story of good and evil receives an intelligent rationale, and one can begin to understand why — quite apart from the ordinary goody-goody and merely devotional considerations — it is really advisable to be moral — to govern your thoughts and seek to render the lower will subservient to the Divine. For it must never be forgotten that the real Self of the Incarnation, according to the Occult view, is not the you and I of terrestrial existence, which is, in truth, but too often a grotesque reflection of that, the real Self, ignored by most men, and only to be dimly approached as the most ideal and perfect archetype which it is possible for the mind to conceive. Never, therefore, forget due honour and reverence to the Lord of the Universe — the Lord of your Universe, for as the whole is greater than the part, so are we but as sparks derived from that insupportable Light which is in Him !

The work, then, of the Occultist is to expel the evil forces from his own nature, which he seeks to purify and exalt, and like Elijah, to bring down the fire from Heaven upon the altar of his sacrifice. For the four-lettered name of the angry and jealous God, translated in the Christian Bible as Jehovah, and which may be regarded as referring in a way to the lower quarternary of Theosophical doctrine, became the name of the self-sacrificing and compassionate Jesus by the addition of the letter Shin, representing the divine fire, in other words, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, which divine fire, as the oracles teach, obliterates all the stains produced by generation.

The aim of the practical aspect of Occultism is to teach the way whereby this effect can be consummated; how to render the lower nature of man subservient to his own divinity; in a word, to enable man to become more than man — a God. Is this a mere poetic fiction, or has it a basis in reality ? Is it the dream of a visionary, or the weakness of the Theosophical mind? This prosaic age may deem it so; but it is assuredly nothing new, and is in truth to be found underlying the whole department of the world's Religious thought, ever since the days when it was written, "And [Page 14] Chanokh made himself to walk for ever close with the Essence of the Elohim, and he existed not apart, seeing that the Elohim took possession of his being".

If, however, there is thus before you a possible apotheosis, there is also behind you a black antithesis. For, on the other hand, it is taught that the evil Occultist may become united to the black reflections of the divine powers, and this is a mystery of evil. In Theosophical literature the conception of the black magician has been very little understood, because nothing has been openly taught concerning those travestied and distorted reflections of the divine powers, which must inevitably exist and synthesize, as it were, the evil part of man's nature. But the Light of divine illumination from above shines but the clearer for the darkness and gloom of materialism beneath, and so we may at length come to understand that even the evil germs of matter help forward the good. In the Occult conception what we call evil is really a lower form of evolution, appropriate enough on its own plane, but retrograde from the standpoint of humanity. In the mystic progress, as has been said, the vices of man become steps in the ladder one by one as they are surmounted — the virtues of man are indeed necessary — not by any means to be dispensed with; and it is, I believe, a profound truth — the greater the sinner, the greater the saint.

Such then, very briefly and inadequately touched upon, is the Occult life, its aims, and the means thereto. If the art of high magic exists, let me say at once it does not exist to flatter petty personal vanity, or to be tinkered with by the curious experimentalist. If it is imparted by teacher to pupil, it is so imparted simply in order that the latter may learn to equilibrate his own nature and attain unto the perfection of spiritual growth. Thus labouring unknown and unrecognised behind the mask of one or another personality, the Occultist works with an eye to the ideal of human progression, — ever ready to sacrifice self for humanity, he seeks no other reward than the infinite satisfaction of a pure heart.