Theosophy - Star-Angel-Worship in the Roman Catholic Church - by H.P.Blavatsky - Adyar Pamphlets - No. 81
Adyar Pamphlets - No. 81
STAR-ANGEL-WORSHIP
IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
by H.P.Blavatsky
September
1917
Reprinted from Lucifer, Volume
II July 1888
Theosophical Publishing House,
Adyar, Madras, India
INTRODUCTION
The subject matter of the present
article has not been chosen from any desire of “finding fault" with
the Christian religion, as LUCIFER is
often accused of doing. No special animosity is felt towards Popery any
more than against any other existing dogmatic and ritualistic faith. We
merely hold that “there is no higher
religion than truth". Hence, being incessantly attacked by the Christians
— among whom none are so bitter and contemptuous as the Romanists — who
call us “idolaters" and “heathens", and otherwise denounce
us, it is necessary that at times something should be said in our defence,
and truth reestablished.
The Theosophists are accused of
believing in Astrology, and the Devas
(Dhyan Chohans) of the Hindus and Northern Buddhists. A too impulsive
missionary in the Central Provinces of India has actually called us “Astrolaters",
“Sabians" and [Page 2] “devil-worshippers". This,
as usual, is an unfounded calumny and a misrepresentation. No Theosophist,
no Occultist in the true sense of the word has ever worshipped
Devas, Nats, Angels or even Planetary Spirits. Recognition of
the actual existence of such Beings — which, however exalted,
are still gradually evolved creatures and finite — and even reverence
for some of them is not worship. The latter is an elastic
word, one that has been made threadbare by the poverty of the English tongue.
We address a magistrate as his “worship", but it can hardly be
said that we pay to him divine honours. A mother often worships
her children, a husband his wife, and vice versa, but none
of these prays to the object of his worship. But in neither case does it
apply to the Occultists. An Occultist's reverence for certain high Spirits
may be very great in some cases; aye, perhaps even as great as the reverence
felt by some Christians for their Archangels Michael and Gabriel and their
(St.) George of Cappadocia - -the learned purveyor of Constantine's armies.
But it stops there. For the Theosophists these planetary “angels" occupy
no higher place than that which Virgil assigns them:
They boast
ethereal vigour and are form'd
From
seeds of heavenly
birth,
as does also every mortal. Each
and all are occult potencies having sway over certain attributes of nature.
And, if once attracted to a mortal, they do help him in certain things. Yet,
on the whole, the less one has to do with them the better. [Page 3]
Not so with the Roman Catholics, our pious detractors. The Papists worship
them and have rendered to them divine homage from the beginning
of Christianity to this day, and in the full acceptation of the italicised
words, as this article will prove. Even for the Protestants, the Angels
in general, if not the Seven Angels of the Stars particularly — are “Harbingers
of the Most High" and “Ministering Spirits" to whose protection
they appeal, and who have their distinct place in the Book of Common Prayer.
The facts that the Star and Planetary
Angels are worshipped by the Papists is not generally known. The cult had
many vicissitudes. It was several times abolished, then again permitted.
It is the short history of its growth, its last re-establishment and the
recurrent efforts to proclaim this worship openly, of which a brief sketch
is here attempted. This worship may be regarded for the last few years as obsolete,
yet to this day it was never abolished. Therefore it will now be my pleasure
to prove that if anyone deserves the name of “idolatrous", it
is not the Theosophists, Occultists, Kabalists and Astrologers, but, indeed,
most of the Christians; those Roman Catholics who, besides the Star-angels,
worship a Kyriel of more or less problematical saints and the Virgin Mary,
of whom their Church has made a regular goddess.
The short bits of history that follow
are extracted from various trustworthy sources, such as the Roman Catholics
will find it rather difficult to gainsay or repudiate. For our authorities
are (a), various [Page 4] documents
in the archives of the Vatican; (b), sundry
works by pious and well-known Roman Catholic writers, Ultramontanes to
the backbone — lay and ecclesiastical authors; and finally (c),
a Papal Bull, than which no better evidence could be found.
In the
middle of the VIII century of the Christian era the very notorious Archbishop
Adalbert of Magdeburg, famous as few in the annals of magic, appeared before
his judges. He was charged with, and ultimately convicted — by
the second Council of Rome presided over by Pope Zacharia — of using
during his performances of ceremonial magic the names of the “Seven
Spirits" — then at the height of their power in the
Church — among others, that of URIEL, with the help
of whom he had succeeded in producing his greatest phenomena. As can be
easily shown, the church is not against magic proper, but
only against those magicians who fail to conform to her methods and rules
of evocation. However, as the wonders wrought by the Right Reverend Sorcerer
were not of a character that would permit of their classification among “miracles
by the grace, and the glory of God", they
were declared unholy. Moreover, the Archangel URIEL (lux
et ignis) having been compromised by such exhibitions, his name had to
be discredited. But, as such a disgrace upon one of the “Thrones"
and “Messengers of the Most High" would have reduced the number
of these Jewish Saptarishis to only six, and thus have thrown [Page
5] into confusion the whole celestial hierarchy, a very clever
and crafty subterfuge was resorted to. It was, however, neither new, nor has
it proved very convincing or efficacious.
It was declared that Bishop Adalbert's
Uriel, the “fire of God",
was not the Archangel mentioned in the second Book of Esdras; nor was he
the glorious personage so often named in the magical books of Moses — especially
in the 6th and 7th. The sphere or planet of this original Uriel was said,
by Michael Glycas the Byzantine, to be the Sun. How then could this exalted
being — the friend and companion of Adam in Eden before his fall, and,
later, the chum of Seth and Enoch, as all pious Christians know how could he
ever have given a helping hand to sorcery? Never, never! the idea alone was absurd.
Therefore, the Uriel so revered by the Fathers of the Church, remained
as unassailable and as immaculate as ever. It was a devil of the
same name — an obscure devil, one must think, since he is nowhere mentioned
— who had to pay the penalty of Bishop Adalbert's little transactions in
black magic. This “bad" Uriel is, as a certain tonsured
advocate has tried hard to insinuate, connected with a certain significant
word of occult nature, used by and known only to Masons of a very high degree.
Ignorant of the “word" itself, however, the defender has most
gloriously failed to prove his version.
Such whitewashing of the archangel's
character was of course necessary in view of the special worship paid to
him. St. Ambrosius had chosen Uriel as a [Page 6] patron
and paid him almost divine reverence. [ De Fide ad gratiam.
Book III. ] Again the famous
Father Gastaldi, the Dominican monk, writer and Inquisitor, had proven in
his curious work “On the
Angels" (De Angelis) that the worship of the “Seven
Spirits" by the Church had been and was legal in all the ages;
and that it was necessary for the moral support and faith of the children
of the (Roman) Church. In short that he who should neglect these gods was
as bad as any “heathen" who did not.
Though sentenced and suspended,
Bishop Adalbert had a formidable party in Germany, one that not only defended
and supported the sorcerer himself, but also the disgraced Archangel. Hence,
the name of Uriel was left in the missals after the trial, the “Throne" merely
remaining “under suspicion". In accordance with her admirable
policy the Church having declared that the “blessed Uriel", had
nought to do with the “accursed
Uriel" of the Kabalists, the matter rested there.
To show the great latitude offered
to such subterfuges, the occult tenets about the celestial Hosts have only
to be remembered. The world of Being begins with the Spiritual Fire or Sun
and its seven “Flames"
or Rays. These “Sons of Light", called the “multiple" because,
allegorically speaking they belong to and lead a simultaneous existence in heaven
and on earth, easily furnished a handle to the Church to hang her dual Uriel
upon. Moreover, Devas, Dhyan-Chohans, Gods
and Archangels are [Page 7] all identical
and are made to change their protean forms, names and positions, ad libitum.
As the sidereal gods of the Sabians became the Kabalistic and Talmudistic angels
of the Jews with their esoteric names unaltered, so they passed bag and baggage
into the Christian Church as the Archangels, exalted only in their office.
These names are their “mystery" titles.
So mysterious are they, indeed, that the Roman Catholics themselves are not
sure of them, now that the Church, in her anxiety to hide their humble origin,
has changed and altered them about a dozen times. This is what the pious
de Mirville confesses:
To speak with precision and
certainty, as we might like to, about everything in connection with their
(the angels) names and attributes is not an easy task. . . . For when one
has said that these Spirits are the seven assistants that surround
the throne of the Lamb and form its seven horns; that the famous seven-branched
candlestick of the Temple was their type and symbol . . . when we have shown
them figured in Revelation by the seven stars in the Saviour's
hand, or by the angels letting loose the seven plagues — we
shall but have stated once more one of those incomplete truths which we have
to handle with such caution. (Of the Spirits before their Fall.)
Here the author utters a great truth.
He would have uttered one still greater, though, had he added that no
truth, upon any subject
whatever, has been ever made complete by the Church. Otherwise, where
would be the mystery so absolutely necessary to the authority of the ever
incomprehensible dogmas of the Holy “Bride"? [Page 8]
These “Spirits" are called primarii principes. But
what these first Principles are in reality is not explained. In the first
centuries of Christianity the Church would not do so; and in this one she
knows of them no more than her faithful lay sons do. She has lost the secret.
The question concerning the definite
adoption of names for these angels, de Mirville tells us —
has
given rise to controversies that have lasted for centuries. To this day these
seven names are a mystery.
Yet they are found in certain
missals and in the secret documents at the Vatican, along with the astrological
names known to many. But as the Kabalists, and among others Bishop Adalbert,
have used some of them, the Church will not accept these titles, though she
worships the creatures. The usual names accepted are Mikael, the “quis
ut Deus", the “like unto God"; GABRIEL,
the “strength (or power) of God"; RAPHAEL,
or “divine virtue"; URIEL, “God's light
and fire"; SCALTIEL, the speech of God'; JEHUDIEL, the “praise of God" and BARACHIEL,
the '“blessing of God". These “seven" are absolutely
canonical,but
they are not the true mystery names — the magical POTENCIES.
And even among the “substitutes", as just shown, Uriel has been
greatly compromised and the three last enumerated are pronounced “suspicious".
Nevertheless, though nameless, they are still worshipped. Nor is it true
to say that no trace of these three names — so “suspicious" — is
anywhere found in the Bible, for they are mentioned in certain of the old Hebrew
scrolls. One of [Page 9] them is named
in Chapter XVI of Genesis — the
angel who appears to Hagar; and all the three appear as “the Lord"
(the Elohim) to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, as the “three men" who
announced to Sarai the birth of Isaac (Genesis, XVIII). “Jehudiel", moreover,
is distinctly named in Chapter XXIII of Exodus, as the angel in whom was
“the name" (praise
in the original) of God (vide verse 21).
It is through their “divine attributes", which have led to the
formation of the names, that these Archangels may be identified by an easy
esoteric method of transmutation with the Chaldean great Gods and even with
the Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of India. [He who knows
anything of the Purânas and their allegories, knows that the Rishis therein
as well as the Manus are Sons of God, of Brahmâ, and themselves Gods; that
they become men and then, as Saptarishi, they turn into stars and constellations.
Finally that they are first 7, then 10, then 14, and finally 21. The occult meaning
is evident . ]
They are the Seven Sabian Gods, and the Seven Seats (Thrones)
and Virtues of the Kabalists; and now they have become with the Catholics,
their “Seven Eyes of the Lord", and the “Seven Thrones",
instead of “Seats".
Both Kabalists and “Heathen" must
feel quite flattered to thus see their Devas and Rshis become the “Ministers
Plenipotentiary" of
the Christian God. And now the narrative may be continued unbroken.
Until about the fifteenth
century after the misadventure of Bishop Adalbert, the names of only the
first three Archangels out of the seven stood in the Church in their full
odour of sanctity. The other four remained ostracised — as
names. [Page 10]
Whoever has been in Rome must
have visited the privileged temple of the Seven Spirits, especially built
for them by Michael Angelo: the famous church known as “St. Mary of
the Angels". Its
history is curious but very little known to the public that frequents it.
It is worthy, however, of being recorded.
In 1460, there
appeared in Rome a great “Saint",
named Amadoeus. He was a nobleman from Lusitania, who already in Portugal
had become famous for his prophecies and beatific visions. [He
died at Rome in 1482. ] During one of such
he had a revelation. The seven Archangels appeared to the holy man, so beloved
by the Pope that Sixtus IV had actually permitted him to build on the site of
St. Peter in Montorio a Franciscan
monastery. And having appeared they revealed to him their genuine bona
fide mystery names. The names used by the Church were substitutes, they
said. So they were, and the “angels" spoke truthfully. Their business
with Amadoeus was a modest request. They demanded to be legally recognized
under their legitimate patronymics, to receive public worship and have a
temple of their own. Now the Church in her great wisdom had declined these
names from the first, as being those of Chaldean gods, and had substituted
for them astrological aliases. This then, could not be done,
as “they were names of demons" explains Baronius.
But so were the “substitutes" in Chaldea before they were altered
for a purpose in the Hebrew [Page11] Angelology.
And if they are names of
demons, asks
pertinently de Mirville, “why are they yet given to Christians
and Roman Catholics at baptism?" The truth is that if the last four
enumerated are demon-names, so must be those of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
But the “holy" visitors
were a match for the Church in obstinacy. At the same hour that Amadoeus
had his vision at Rome, in Sicily, at Palermo, another wonder was taking
place. A miraculously painted picture of the Seven Spirits, was as miraculously
exhumed from under the ruins of an old chapel. On the painting the same
seven mystery names
that were being revealed at that hour to Amadoeus were also found inscribed
“under the portrait of each angel", [Des Esprits. etc.,by
de Mirville. ]
says the chronicler.
Whatever might be in this our
age of unbelief the feelings of the great and learned leaders of various
psychic and telepathic societies on this subject, Pope Sixtus IV was greatly
impressed by the coincidence. He believed in Amadoeus
as implicitly as Mr. Brudenel believed in the Abyssinian prophet, “Herr
Paulus". [“Herr Paulus" — the no less miraculous
production of Mr. Walter Besant's rather muddled and very one-sided fancy. ] But
this was by no means the only “coincidence" of the day. The Holy Roman
and Apostolic Church was built on such miracles, and continues to stand on them
now as on the rock of Truth; for God has ever sent to her timely miracles. [ En
passant — a remark may be made and a query propounded:
The “miracles" performed
in the bosom of Mother Church — from the apostolic down to the ecclesiastical miracles at
Lourdes — if not more remarkable than those attributed to “Herr
Paulus", are at any rate far more wide-reaching. hence, more pernicious
in their result upon the human mind. Either both kinds are possible, or both
are due to fraud and dangerous hypnotic and magnetic powers possessed by
some men. Now Mr. W. Besant evidently tries to impress upon his readers that
his novel was written in the interests of that portion of society which is
so easily befooled by the other. And if so, why then not have traced all
such phenomena to their original and primeval source, i.e.,
belief in the possibility of supernatural occurrences because of
the inculcated belief in the MIRACLES in
the Bible, and their continuation by the Church? No Abyssinian
prophet, as no “occult philosopher", has ever made such large
claims to “miracle" and divine help — and no Peter's
pence expected, either — as the “Bride of Christ" — she,
of Rome. Why has not then our author, since he was so extremely anxious to
save the millions of England from delusion, and so very eager to expose the
pernicious means used — why has he not tried to first explode the greater
humbug, before he ever touched the minor tricks — if any? Let
him first explain to the British public the turning of water into wine and
the resurrection of Lazarus on the half hypnotic and half jugglery and fraud hypothesis.
For, if one set of wonders may be explained by blind belief and mesmerism,
why not the other? Or is it because the Bible miracles believed in by every
Protestant and Catholic (with the divine miracles at Lourdes thrown
into the bargain by the latter) cannot be as easily handled by an author
who desires to remain popular, as those of the “occult philosopher" and
the spiritual medium? Indeed, no courage, no fearless defiance of the consequences
are required to denounce the helpless and now very much scared professional medium.
But all these qualifications and an ardent love of truth into the
bargain, are absolutely necessary if one would beard Mrs. Grundy in her
den. For this the traducers of the “Esoteric Buddhists" are too
prudent and wily. They only seek cheap popularity with the scoffer and the
materialist. Well, sure they are, that no professional medium will
ever dare call them wholesale slanderers to their faces, or seek redress
from them so long as the law against palmistry is staring him in the face.
As to the “Esoteric Buddhist" or “Occult Philosopher",
there is still less danger from this quarter. The contempt of the latter
for all the would-be traducers is absolute and it requires more than the
clumsy denunciations of a novelist to disturb them. And why should they feel
annoyed? As they are neither professional prophets, nor do they benefit
by St. Peter's pence, the most malicious calumny can only make them laugh.
Mr. Walter Besant, however, has said a great truth in his novel, a true pearl
of foresight, dropped on a heap of mire: the “occult philosopher" does
not propose to “hide his light under a bushel". ] [Page
12 ] Therefore, when also, on
that very same day, an old prophecy written in very archaic Latin, and referring
to both the find and the revelation was discovered at Pisa, it
produced quite a commotion among the faithful. The prophecy foretold, you see, the
revival of the “Planetary-Angel" worship for that period; also
that during the reign of Pope Clement VII, the convent of St. François
de Paul would be raised on the emplacement of the little ruined chapel.
“The event occurred as predicted", boasts de Mirville, forgetting
that the Church had made the prediction true herself, by following the command
implied in it. Yet this is called a “prophecy" to this day. [Page
13]
But it was only in the sixteenth
century that the Church consented at last to comply on every point with
the request of her “high-born" celestial
petitioners.
At that time though there was
hardly a church or chapel in Italy without a copy of the miraculous picture
in painting or mosaic, and that actually, in 1516, a splendid “temple
to the Seven Spirits" had
been raised and finished near the ruined chapel at Palermo — still the “angels"
failed to be satisfied. In the words of their chronicler — “the blessed
spirits were not contented with Sicily alone, and secret prayers. They wanted
a world-wide worship and the whole Catholic world to recognize them publicly".
Heavenly denizens themselves, as
it seems, are not quite free from the ambition and the vanities of [Page
14] our material
plane! This is what the ambitious “Rectors" devised to obtain that
which they wanted.
Antonio Duca, another seer (in the
annals of the Church of Rome) had been just appointed rector of the Palermo
“temple of the seven spirits". About
that period, he began to have the same beatific visions as Amadeus had.
The Archangels were now urging the Popes through him to recognize them, and
to establish a regular and a universal worship in their own names,just
as it was before Bishop Adalbert's scandal. They insisted upon having a special
temple built for them alone, and they wanted
it upon the ancient site of the famous Thermoe of Diocletian.
To the erection of these Thermoe, agreeably with tradition,
40,000 Christians and 10,000 martyrs had been condemned, and helped in this
task by such famous “Saints" as Marcellus and Thraso. Since then,
however, as stated in Bull LV by the Pope Pius IV, “this den had remained
set apart for the most profane usages and demon (magic?) rites".
But as it appears from sundry documents,
all did not go quite as smooth as the “blessed spirits" would
have liked, and the poor Duca had a hard time of it. Notwithstanding the
strong protection of the Colonna families who used all their influence with
Pope Paul III, and the personal request of Marguerite of Austria, the daughter
of Charles V, “the
seven spirits" could not be satisfied, for the same mysterious (and
to us very clear) reasons, though propitiated and otherwise honoured in
every way. The difficult mission of [Page15] Duca,
in fact, was crowned with success only thirty-four years later. Ten years before,
however, namely in 1551, the preparatory purification of the Thermoe had
been ordered by Pope Julius III, and a first church had been built under the
name of “St. Mary
of the Angels". But
the “Blessed
Thrones", feeling displeased with its name, brought on a war during
which this temple was plundered and destroyed, as if instead of glorified
Archangels they had been maleficent Kabalistic spooks.
After this, they went on appearing
to seers and saints, with greater frequency than before, and clamoured even
more loudly for a special place of worship. They demanded the re-erection
on the same spot (the Thermoe) of a temple which should be called
the “Church of the Seven
Angels".
But there was the same difficulty
as before. The Popes had pronounced the original titles demon-names, i.e.,
those of Pagan gods, and to introduce them into the church service would
have been fatal. The “mystery names" of the seven angels could
not be given. True enough, when the old “miraculous" picture with
the seven names on it had been found, these names had been freely used in
the church services. But, at the period of the Renaissance, Pope Clement
XI had ordered a special report to be made on them as they stood on the picture.
It was a famous astronomer of that day, a Jesuit, named Joseph Biancini,
who was entrusted with this delicate mission. The result to which the inquest
led, was as unexpected as it was fatal to the worshippers of the [Page
16] seven
Sabian gods; the Pope, while commanding that the picture should be preserved,
ordered the seven angelic names to be carefully rubbed out. And “though
these names are traditional", and “although they have naught
to do with", and are “very different from the names used by
Adalbert" (the Bishop-magician of Magdeburg), as the chronicler cunningly
adds, yet even their mention was forbidden in the holy churches of Rome.
Thus affairs went on from 1527 till
1561; the rector trying to satisfy the orders of his seven “guides", — the
Church fearing to adopt even the Chaldean substitutes for the “mystery-names" as
they had been so “desecrated by magical practices". We are not
told, however, why the mystery-names, far less known than their substitutes
have ever been, should not have been given out if the blessed “Thrones"
enjoyed the smallest confidence. But, it must have been “small"
indeed, since one finds the “Seven Archangels" demanding their
restitution for thirty-four years, and refusing positively to be called by
any other name, and the Church still deaf to their desires. The Occultists do
not conceal the reason why they have ceased to use them: they are dangerously
magical. But why should the Church fear them? Have not the Apostles,
and Peter pre-eminently, been told “Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall
be bound in Heaven", and were they not given power over every demon
known and unknown? Nevertheless, some of the mystery names may be still
found along with their substitutes in old Roman missals [Page
17] printed in
1563. There is one in the Barberini library with the whole mass-service in it,
and the forbidden truly Sabian names of the seven “great gods" flashing
out ominously hither and thither.
The “Gods" lost patience
once more. Acting in a truly Jehovistic spirit with their “stiff-necked" worshippers,
they sent a plague. A terrible epidemic of obsession and possession broke
out in 1553, “when almost all Rome found itself possessed
by the devil", says de Mirville (without explaining whether the clergy
were included). Then only Duca's wish was realized. His seven Inspirers
were invoked in their own names, and “the epidemic ceased as by enchantment,
the blessed ones", adds the chronicler, “proving by the divine
powers they possessed, once more, that they had nothing in common with
the demons of the same name", — i.e., the Chaldean gods. [ But
they had proved their power earlier by sending the war, the destruction of the
church. and finally the epidemic; and this does not look very angelic — to
an Occultist. ]
“Then
Michael Angelo was summoned in all haste by Paul IV to the Vatican." His
magnificent plan was accepted and the building of the former church begun. Its
construction lasted over three years. In the archives of this now celebrated
edifice, one can read that: “The
narrative of the miracles that occurred during that period could not be
undertaken, as it was one incessant miracle of three years'
duration." In the presence of all his cardinals, Pope Paul
lV ordered that the seven names, as originally written on the picture, should
be restored, and inscribed around the [Page 18] large
copy from it that surmounts to this day the high altar.
The admirable temple was consecrated to the Seven Angels in 1561. The
object of the Spirits was reached; three years later, nearly simultaneously,
Michael Angelo and Antonio Duca both died. They were no longer wanted.
Duca was the first person buried
in the church for the erection of which he had fought the best part of his
life and finally procured for his heavenly patrons. On his tomb the summary
of the revelations obtained by him, as also the catalogue of the prayers
and invocations, of the penances and fasts used as means of getting the “blessed" revelations
and more frequent visits from the “Seven" , are engraved.
In the vestry a sight of the documents attesting to, and enumerating some
of the phenomena of “the
incessant miracle of three years' duration" may be obtained for a small
fee. The record of the “miracles" bears the imprimatur of
a Pope and several Cardinals, but it still lacks that of the Society for
Psychic Research. The “Seven Angels" must be needing the latter
badly, as without it their triumph will never be complete. Let us hope that
the learned Spookical Researchers will send their “smart boy"
to Rome at an early day, and that the “blessed ones" may find
at Cambridge — a Duca.
But what became of the “mystery
names" so
cautiously used and what of the new ones? First of all came the substitution
of the name of Eudiel for one of the Kabalistic names. Just one hundred years
[Page 19] later, all the seven names
suddenly disappeared, by order of the Cardinal Albitius. In the old and venerable
Church of Santa Maria della
Pieta on
the Piazza Colonna, the “miraculous" painting of the Seven Archangels
may be still seen, but the names have been scratched out and the places
repainted. Sic transit gloria. A little while after that the
mass and vesper services of the “Seven" were once more eliminated
from the missals used, notwithstanding that “they are quite distinct"
from those of the “Planetary Spirits" who used to help Bishop
Adalbert. But as “the robe does not really make the monk", so
the change of names cannot prevent the individuals that had them from being
the same as they were before. They are still worshipped and this is all
that my article aims to prove.
Will this be denied? In that case
I have to remind the readers that so late as in 1825, a Spanish grandee,
supported by the Archbishop of Palermo made an attempt before Leo XII for
the simultaneous re-establishment
of the service and names. The Pope granted the Church service
but refused the permission to use the old names. [This
is quoted from the volumes of the Marquis de Mirville's “Pneumatologie
des Esprits", Vol. II, p. 388. A more rabid papist and ultramontane
having never existed, his testimony can hardly be suspected. He seems to glory
in this idolatry and is loud in demanding its public and universal restoration. ]
“This service, perfected and
amplified by order of Paul IV, the minutes of which exist to this day at
the Vatican and the Minerva,remained in force during the whole
pontificate of Leo X." The
Jesuits [Page20] were those who rejoiced
the most at the resurrection of the old worship, in view of the prodigious
help they received from it, as it ensured the success of their proselytising
efforts in the Philippine Islands. Pope Pius V conceded the same “divine
service" to
Spain, saying in his Bull, that “one could never exalt too much these
seven Rectors of the world, figured by the SEVEN
PLANETS", and
that . . . “it
looked consoling and augured well for this century, that by the grace of God,
the cult of
these seven ardent lights, and these seven stars, was
regaining all its lustre in the Christian republic". [p.
358 ibid. Vide infra. ]
The same “holy Pope permitted
moreover to the nuns of Matritensis
to establish the fête of JEHUDIEL the
patron of their convent". Whether another less pagan name has now been
substituted for it, we are not informed — nor does it in the least matter.
In 1832 the same demand in a petition
to spread the worship of the “Seven
Spirits of God", was reiterated, endorsed this time by eighty-seven
bishops and thousands of officials with high-sounding names in the Church
of Rome. Again, in 1858, Cardinal Patrizzi and King Ferdinand II in the
name of all the people of Italy reiterated their petition; and again,
finally, in 1862. Thus the Church services in honour of the seven “Spirit-Stars"
have never been abrogated since 1825. To this day they are in full vigour
in Palermo, in Spain, and even in Rome at “St. Mary of the Angels" and
the “Gésu" — though entirely suppressed
everywhere else; all this “because of [Page 21] Adalbert's heresy", de
Mirville and the other supporters of Star-Angel worship are pleased to say. In
reality there is no reason but the one already disclosed for it. Even the seven
substitutes, especially the last four, have been too openly connected with black
magic and astrology.
Writers of the de Mirville type are in despair. Not daring to blame the
Church, they vent their wrath upon the old Alchemists and Rosicrucians.
They clamour for the restitution of a public worship notwithstanding; and
the imposing association formed since 1862 in Italy, Bavaria, Spain and
elsewhere for the reestablishment of the cult of the Seven Spirits in
all its fullness and in all Catholic Europe, gives hope that in a few
years more the Seven Rishis of India now happily domiciled in the constellation
of the Great Bear will become by the grace and will of some infallible Pontiff
of Rome the legal and honoured divine patrons of Christendom.
And why not,
since (St.) George is to this day, “the patron Saint of not only Holy
Russia, Protestant Germany, Fairy Venice, but also of Merry England, whose
soldiers", — says W. M.
Braithwaite, [“St. George for Merry England", by
W. M. Braithwaite. Masonic Monthly, No. 2. ] — “would
uphold his prestige with their heart's blood". And surely our “Seven
gods" cannot be worse than
was the rascally George of Cappadocia during his lifetime!
Hence, with the courage of true
believers, the Christian defenders of the Seven Star-Angels deny nothing,
at any rate they keep silent whenever [Page 22] accused
of rendering divine honours to Chaldean and other Gods. They even admit the
identity and proudly confess to the charge of star-worshipping. The accusation
has been thrown many a time by the French Academicians into the teeth of
their late leader, the Marquis de Mirville, and this is what he writes in
reply:
“We are accused of mistaking
stars for angels. The charge is acquiring such a wide notoriety that
we are forced to answer it very seriously. It is impossible that we should
try to dissimulate it without failing in frankness and courage, since this pretended
mistake is
repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our theology. We shall examine
. . . this opinion hitherto so accredited, today discredited, and which
attributes rightly to our SEVEN PRINCIPAL SPIRITS the
rulership, not of the seven known planets, with which we are reproached,
but of the seven PRINCIPAL planets [These “principal
planets" are the mystery planets of the pagan Initiates,
but travestied by dogma and priestcraft. ] — which
is quite a different thing." [Pneumatologie
des Esprits,Vol.
II. Mémoire adressé aux Académies, p. 359et. seq. ]
And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet, the astronomer,
who sought to prove in an able article of the Revue des Deux Mondes (May,
1885), that in reality besides the earth we had only SEVEN
big planets.
The “seven principal planets" is
another confession to the acceptance of a purely occult tenet. Every planet
according to the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like
man, in its principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical
body
of the sidereal being the Atma or Spirit of which is the [Page23] Angel,
or Rshi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call it. This belief as the
occultists will see (read in Esoteric Buddhism about
the constitution of the planets), is thoroughly occult. It is a tenet of the
Secret Doctrine — minus
its idolatrous element — pure and simple. As taught in the Church and
her rituals, however, and especially, as practised, it is
ASTROLATRY as pure and as simple.
There is no need
to show here the difference between teaching, or theory, and practice in
the holy Roman Catholic Church. The words “Jesuit" and “Jesuitism"
cover the whole ground. The Spirit of Truth has departed ages ago — if
it has ever been near it — from the Church of Rome. At this, the Protestant
Church, so full of brotherly spirit and love for her sister Church, will
say, Amen. The Dissenter, whose heart is as full of the love
of Jesus as of hatred towards Ritualism and its mother, Popery, will chuckle.
In the editorial of the Times for
November 7, 1866, stands “A
Terrible Indictment" against the Protestants, which says:
Under the influence of the Episcopal Bench, all the studies connected
with theology have withered, until English Biblical critics are the scorn
of foreign scholars. Whenever we take up the work of a theologian who is
likely to be a Dean or a Bishop, we find, not an earnest inquirer
setting forth the results of honest research, but merely
an advocate, who, we can perceive, has begun his work with the fixed determination
of proving black white in favour of his own traditional system.
If the Protestants do not recognize
the “Seven Angels", nor,
while refusing them divine worship,[Page 24] do
they feel ashamed and afraid of their names, as the Roman Catholics do, on the
other hand they are guilty of “Jesuitism" of
another kind, just as bad. For, while professing to believe the Scriptures a
direct Revelation from God, not one sentence of which should be
altered under the penalty of eternal damnation, they yet tremble and cower
before the discoveries of science, and try to pander to their great enemy.
Geology, Anthropology, Ethnology and Astronomy, are to them what Uriel,
Scaltiel, Jehudiel and Barachiel are to the Roman Catholic Church. It is
six of one and half a dozen of the other. And since neither one nor the
other of the two religions will abstain from anathematizing, slandering
and persecuting Magic, Occultism, and even Theosophy, it is but just and
proper that in their turn the Students of the Sacred Science of old should
retort at last, and keep on telling the truth fearlessly to the faces of
both.
MAGNA EST
VERITAS ET PRAEVALEBIT
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