M. Michelet, who has carefully investigated the materials

relating to the trial of the Templars, has suggested at least an ingenious explanation of these anomalies. He imagines that the form of reception was borrowed from the figurative mysteries and rites of the early church. The candidate for admission into the order, according to this notion, was first presented as a sinner and renegade, in which character, after the example of St. Peter, he denied Christ. This denial was a sort of pantomime, in which the
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novice expressed his reprobate state by spitting on the cross. The candidate was then stripped of his profane clothing, received through the kiss of the order into a higher state of faith, and re-dressed with the garb of its holiness. Forms like these would, in the middle ages, be easily -misunderstood, and their original meaning soon forgotten.
Another charge in the accusation of the Templars seems to have been to a great degree proved by the depositions •of witnesses ; the idol or head which they were said to have worshipped, but the real character or meaning of which we are totally unable to explain. Many Templars con- fessed to having seen this idol, but as they described it differently, we must suppose that it was not in all cases represented under the same form. Some said it was a frightful head, with long beard and sparkling eyes ; others said it was a man's skull ; some described it as having three faces ; some said it was of wood, and others of metal ; •one witness described it as a painting (tabula picta) repre- senting the image of a man, (imago hominis), and said that when it was shown to him, he was ordered to " adore Christ his creator." According to some it was a gilt figure, either of wood or metal ; while others described it as painted black and white. According to another deposition, the idol had four feet — two before and two behind ; the one belonging to the order at Paris was said to be a silver head, with two faces and a beard. The novices of the order were -told always to regard this idol as their saviour. Deodatus Jaffet, a knight from the south of France, who had been received at Pedenat, deposed that the person who in his case performed the ceremonies of reception, showed him a head or idol, which appeared to have three faces, and said, " You must adore this as your saviour, and the saviour of the order of the Temple," and that he was made to worship the idol, saying, " Blessed be he who shall save my soul." Cettus Ragonis, a knight received at Rome in a chamber of the palace of the Lateran, gave a somewhat similar account. Many other witnesses spoke of having seen these heads, which, however, were, perhaps, not shown to everybody, for the greatest number of those who ■spoke on this subject, said that they had heard speak of the head, but that they had never seen it themselves ; and many of them declared their disbelief in its existence. A friar minor deposed in England that an English Templar had assured him that in that country the order had four ^principal ido's, one at London in the sacristy of the Temple, another at Bristelham, a third at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire), and a fourth beyond the Humber.
Some of the knights from the south added another circumstance in their confessions relating to this head. A Templar of Florence declared that, in the secret meetings of the chapters, one brother said to the others, showing them the idol, " Adore this head. This head is your God, and your Mahomet." Another, Gauserand de Montpesant, said that the idol was made in the figure of Baffomet (in Jiguram Ba'ffomeli) ; and another Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which was painted the figure of Baphomet, and he adds, " that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, Yalla," which he describes as " a word of the Saracens " (verbum Saracenoram). This has been seized upon by some as a proof that the Templars had secretly embraced Mahometanism. As Baffomet or Bapho- met is evidently a corruption of Mahomet ; but it must not be forgotten that the Christians of the West constantly used the word Mahomet in the mere signification of an idol, and that it was the desire of those who conducted the prosecution against the Templars to show their intimate intercourse with the Saracens. Others, especially Von Hammer, gave a Greek derivation of the word, and assumed ■it as a proof that Gnosticism was the secret doctrine of the Temple.
The confessions with regard to the mysterious cat were much rarer and more vague. Some Italian knights con- fessed that they had been present at a secret chapter of twelve knights held at Brindisi, at which a grey cat suddenly appeared amongst them, and that they worshipped it. At Nismes, some Templars declared that they had been present at a chapter at Montpellier, at which the demon appeared to them in the form of a cat, and promised thetn worldly prosperity ; and added, that they saw devils in the shape of women. Gilletus de Encreyo, a Templar of the diocese of Rheims, who disbelieved in the story of the cat, deposed that he had heard say, though he knew not by whom, that in some of their battles beyond sea, a cat had appeared to them. An English knight, who was examined at London, deposed, that in England they did not adore the cat or the idol to his knowledge, but he had heard it positively stated that they worshipped the cat and the idol in parts beyond sea. English witnesses deposed to other acts of " idolatry." It was of course the demon, who presented himself in the form of the cat. A lady, named Agnes Lovecote, examined in England, stated that she had heard that, at a chapter held in Dines- lee (Dynnesley, in Hertfordshire), the devil appeared to the Templars in a monstrous form, having precious stones instead of eyes, which shone so bright that they illuminated the whole chapter ; the brethren, in succession, kissed him on the posteriors, and marked there the form of the cross. - She was told that one young man, who refused to go through this ceremony, was thrown into a well, and a great stone cast upon him. Another witness, Robert de Folde, said that he had heard twenty years ago, that in the same place, the devil came to the chapter once a year, and flew away with one of the knights, whom he took as a sort of tribute. Two others deposed that certain Templars confessed to them that at a grand annual assembly in the county of York, the Templars worshipped a calf. All this is mere hearsay, but it shows the popular opinion of the conduct of the order. A Templar examined in Paris, named Jacques de Treces, who said that he had been informed that at secret chapters held at midnight, a head appeared to the assembled brethren, added, that one of them '" had a private demon, by whose council he was wise and rich."
The aim of King Philippe was secured ; he seized upon the whole treasure of the temple in France, and became rich. . Those who ventured to speak in defence of the order were browbeaten, and received little attention ; the torture was employed to force confessions ; fifty-four Templars who refused to confess were carried to the wind- mill of St. Antoine, in the suburbs of Paris, and there burnt ; and many others, among whom was the Grand Master himself, were subsequently brought to the stake. After having lasted two or three years, the process ended in the condemnation and suppression of the order, and its estates were given in some countries to the knights of St. John. It was in France that the persecution was most cruel ; in England, the order was suppressed, but no executions took place. Even in Italy, the severity of the judges was not everywhere the same ; in Lombardy and Tuscany, the Templars were condemned, while they were acquitted at Ravenna and Bologna. They were also pronounced innocent in Castile, while in Arragon they were reduced by force, only because they had attempted to resist by force of arms ; and both in Spain and in Portugal they only gave up their own order to be admitted into others. The pope was offended at the lenity shown towards them in England, Spain, and Germany. The order of the temple was finally dissolved and abolished, and its memory branded with disgrace. Some of the knights are said to have remained together, and formed secret societies. The
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result, in effect, was the same everywhere. Convicted of heresy, sorcery, and many other abominations, the wretched Templars were everywhere punished with death by fire, imprisonment, and their goods escheated to the various crowned heads of Europe, nearly all of whom followed the avaricious example of Philip of France. Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, brought out on to a scaffold erected in front of Notre Dame in Paris, and asked to' repeat his confession and receive sentence of perpetual imprisonment, flared into sudden anger, recanted all he had said, and protested his innocence. He was burnt, and summoned the Pope and the King with his dying breath, to meet him before the bar of Heaven. Both of these Signatories shortly afterwards died, and it remained in the public mind that the outcome of the Grand Master's summons had proved his innocence.
As has been said, there is every reason to believe that there was some foundation for the charges of heresy made against the Templars. Their intimate connection with the East, and the long establishment of the order therein had in all probability rendered their Christianity not quite so pure as that of Western Europe. Numerous treatises have been written for the purpose of proving and disproving the Temple heresy, to show that it followed the doctrines and rites of the Gnostic Ophites of Islam (Baphomet being merely a corruption of Mahomet), and it has been collated with various other eastern systems. Hans Prutz, in his Geheimlehre furthered the view of the rejection of Christianity in favour of a religion based on Gnostic dualism, and at once raised up a host of critics. But many defenders of the order followed, and it was proved in numerous instances the confessions wrung from the Templars were the result of extreme torture. In not a few cases were they acquitted, as in Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and at many German and Italian centres. It has also been shown that the answers of a number of the knights under torture were practically dictated to them. In England, out of eighty Templars examined, only four confessed to the charge of heresy, and of these two were apostates. The whole question may perhaps be summed up as follows. The Templars, through long association with the East, may have become more tolerant of pagan- ism, more broadminded, in their outlook, than their bigoted stay-at-home countrymen. Expressions as regards the worthiness of Saracen nations, among whom the Templars had many friends, would be regarded askance in France, Spain and England, and habits acquired by residence in the East would probably add to the growing body of suspicion regarding the loyalty of the order to Christianity. It it even possible that the Templars intro- duced into their rites practices which savoured of Gnosti- cism or Mahomedanism, but that is unlikely. They were, in short, the victims of their own arrogance, their com- mercial success, and the superstitious ignorance of their contemporaries.
It has frequently been asserted that on the death of Jacques de Molay a conspiracy was entered into by the surviving Templars which had for its objects the destruction of papacy and the several kingdoms of Europe, and that this tradition was handed on through generations of initiates through such societies as the Illuminati and the Freemasons, who in the end brought about the French Revolution and the downfall of the French throne. Such a theory, however enticing to the pseudo-occultist, the defender of the theory that occult tradition has descended to us through a direct line of. adepts, or the fictioneer, can receive no countenance here, and must be dismissed as a mere figment of enthusiasm or imagination. Temple Church, London : Hargrave Jennings in his Rosi- crucians, their Rites and Mysteries, says : The Temple
Church, London, presents many mythic figures, which have a Rosicrucian expression. In the spandrels of the arches of the long church, besides the " Beauseant " which is repeated in many places, there are the armorial' figures following ; " Argent, on a cross gules, the Agnus Dei, or Paschal Lamb, or, "■ Gules the Agnus Dei, dis- playing over the right shoulder the standard of the Temple ; or, a banner, triple cloven, bearing a cross gules ; " Azure, a cross prolonged potent issuant out of the crescent mooa argent, horns, upwards, on either side of the cross, a star or." This latter figure signifies the Virgin Mary, and displays the cross as rising like the pole, or mast of a ship (argha) out of the midst of the crescent moon or navis biprora, curved at both ends ; " azure, semee of estoiles or." The staff of the Grand Master of the Templars displayed a curved cross of four splays, or blades, red upon white. The eight-pointed red Buddhist cross was also one of the Templar ensigns. The Temple arches abound with brandished estoiles, or stars, with wavy or crooked flames. The altar at the east end of the Temple Church has a cross flourie, with lower limb prolonged, or, on a field of estoiles, wavy ; to the right is the Decalogue, surmounted by the initials, A.O. (Alpha and Omega), on the left aTe the monograms of the Saviour, I. C, X. C. ; beneath, is the Lord's Prayer. The whole altar displays feminine colours and emblems, the Temple Church being dedicated to the Virgin Maria. The winged horse, or Pegasus, argent, in a. field gules, is the badge of the Templars. The tombs of the Templars, disposed around the circular church in London, are of that early Norman shape called dos d'ane ; their tops are triangular ; the ridge-moulding passes through the temples and out of the mouth of a mask at the upper end, and issues out of the horned skull, apparently of some purposely trodden creature. The head at the top is shown in the " honour-point " of the cover of the tomb. There is an amount of unsuspected meaning in ' every curve of these Templar tombs. Tempon-teloris — Ship of the Dead : Among the Dayaks of Borneo . the Ship of the Dead, the vessel which carries the souls of the departed in search of the hereafter, is generally represented as being of the shape of a bird, the rhinoceros- hornbill. Accompanying the souls on their journey through the fire-sea are all the stores which have been laid out at the trivah or feast of the dead, and all the slaves who have been killed for that purpose. After some vicissitudes in. the fiery sea, the Ship of the Dead, with Tempon-telon at the helm, reaches the golden shores of the Blessed. Temurah : {See Gematria.)
Tephiilin : In the Hebrew tongue means " attachments." They were originally prayer thongs worn by the Jews at morning prayer — one on the left arm and another on the head. They came to be regarded as talismans and were used in many traditional ceremonies. The Talmud says : " Whoever has the tephiilin bound to his head and arm
is protected from sin."
Tephramaney : A mode of divination in which use is made of the ashes of the fire which had consumed the victims of a sacrifice. Teraphim, The : Of the nature of oracles. The teraphim were taken away from Jacob by his daughter, Rachel, and this mention of them in the Bible is the earliest record we have of " magical " apparatus. Their form is not known, nor the exact use to which they were put ; but from an allusion to them in Hosea III., 4, they were- evidently not idols. Spencer maintains that they were the same as the " Urim " of Mosaic ritual ; at any rate it seems likely that they were used as a means of divination*. Tetractas : (See Alchemy.) Tetrad : [See God.) Tetragram : (See Alchemy, Magic, and Magical Diagram.)
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Teutons : The Teutonic or " Germanic " nations, embracing the peoples of High and Low German speech, Dutch, Danes, and Scandinavians, have always displayed and still display a marked leaning towards the study and con- sideration of the occult. We are, however, concerned here with their attitude towards the hidden sciences in more ancient times, and must refer the reader to the article on " Germany " and the other countries alluded to for information upon mediaeval and modern occultism in them.
But little can be gleaned from the writings of classical authors upon the subject, and it is not until we approach the middle ages, the contemporary manuscripts concerning the traditions of an earlier day, and the works of usch writers as Snorre Sturluson and Saemund (The Eddas) Saxo-Grammaticus, and such epics or pseudo-histories as The Nibelungenlied that we find any light thrown upon the dark places of Teutonic magical practice and belief. From the consideration of such authorities we arrive at several basic conclusions : (i) That magic with the Teutons was non-hierophantic, and was not in any respect the province of the priesthood, as with the Celtic Druids ; (2) That women were its chief conesrvators ; (3) That it principally resided in the study and elucidation of the runic script, in the same manner as in early Egypt it was part and parcel of the ability to decipher the hieroglyphic characters. Passing from the first conclusion, which is self-evident, as we discover all sorts and conditions of people dabbling in magical practice, we find that to a great extent sorcery — for efforts seem to have been confined mostly to black magic — was principally the province of women. This is to be explained, perhaps, by the circumstance that only those who could read the runes — that is, those who could read at all — were able to undertake the study of the occult, and that therefore the unlettered warrior, too restless for the repose of study, was barred from all advance in the subject. We find women in all ranks of life addicted to the practice of sorcery, from the queen on the throne to the wise-woman or witch dwelling apart from the com- munity. Thus the mother-in-law of Siegfried bewitches him by a draught, and scores of similar instances could be adduced. At the same time the general type of ancient Teutonic magic is not very high, it is greatly hampered by human considerations, and is much at the mercy of the human element on which it acts, and the very human desires which call it forth. Indeed in many cases it is rendered nugatory by the mere cunning of the object upon which it is wreaked. In fine it does not rise very much above the type of sorcery in vogue among barbarian peoples at the present day. It is surprising, however, with all these weaknesses, how powerful a hold it con- trived to get upon the popular imagination, which was literally drenched with the belief in supernatural science.
Runes. — (German, rune ; Anglo-Saxon run ; Icelandic run). The word is derived from an old Low German word raunen " to cut " or " to carve," and as the runes in more ancient times were invariably carved and not written, it latterly came to designate the characters them- selves. As has been said, comparatively few were able to decipher them, and the elucidation Was left to the curious, the ambitious among the female sex, and the leisured few in general, those perhaps including priests and lawmen. Consequently we find the power to decipher them an object of mysterious veneration among the ignorant and a belief that the ability to elucidate them meant the possession of magical powers. The possessors of this .ability would in no wise minimise it, so that the belief in their prowess would flourish. Again, it is clear that a certain amount of patience and natural ability were necessary to the acquirement of such an intricate script.
The tradition that they were connected with sorcery has scarcely yet died out in some parts of Iceland. In later times the word runes came to be applied to all the alpha- betical systems employed by the Teutonic peoples before the introduction of Christianity. Their origin is obscure, some authorities denying that it is Teutonic, and asserting that they are merely a transformation or adaptation of the Greek characters, and others that they have a Phoeni- cian or even cuneiform ancestry. That they are of non- Teutonic origin is highly probable, as may be inferred from their strong resemblance to other scripts and from the circumstance that it is highly unlikely that they could have been separately evolved by the Teutonic race in the state of comparative barbarism in which it was when they first came into general use. They have been divided into three systems — English, German, and Scandinavian — but the difference between these is merely local. They were not employed in early times for literary purposes, but for inscriptions only, which are usually found on stone monuments, weapons, implements, and personal ornaments and furniture. In England runic inscriptions are found in the north only, where Scandinavian influence was strongest. The first symbols of the runic alphabet have the powers of the letters f, u, th, 6, r, c, for which reason the order of the runic letters is called not an alphabet but a futhorc. The system is symbolic. Thus its first quantity or letter pictures the head and horns of an ox, and is called feoh after that animal, the second is called ur, after the word for " bull," the third thorn, a tree, the others following os, a door ; rad, a saddle,; caen, a torch, all because of some fancied resemblance to the objects, or, more properly speaking, because they were probably derived or evolved from a purely pictorial system in which the pictures of the animals or objects enumerated above stood for the letters- of the alphabet. Since these were cut, some connection. may be permitted between Anglo-Saxon secgan, to say, and Latin secare, to cut, especially when we find secret signa- tures made of old by merely cutting a chip from the bark manuscript. In spelling, for example, the old sense of " spell " was a thin chip or shaving. Tacitus mentions that in Teutonic divination a rod cut from a fruit-bearing tree was cut into slips, and the slips, having marks on them, were thrown confusedly on a white garment to be taken up with prayer to the gods and interpreted as they were taken. A special use of light cuttings for such fateful cross-readings or " Virgilian lots," may have given to " spells " their particular association with the words of the magician.
Belief in Nature Spirits. — The scope of this work is entirely without the consideration of mythology proper, that is to say that the greater deities of the many human religious systems receive no treatment save in several special circumstances. But the lesser figures of mythology, those who enter into direct contact with man and assist him, or are connected with him, in magical practice, receive special and separate notice. Thus the duergar, or dwarfs trolls, undines, nixies, and all the countless host of Teu- tonic folk-lore are alluded to under their separate headings, and we have here only to consider their general connection with Teutonic man in his magical aspect. His belief in them was distinctly of an animistic character. The dwarfs and trolls inhabited the recesses of the mountains, caves, and the underworld. The nixies and undines dwelt in the lakes, rivers, pools, and inlets of the sea. In general these were friendly to man, but objected to more than an occasional intercourse with him. Though not of the class of supernatural being who obey the behests of man in answer to magical summonses, these, especially the dwarfs, often acted as his instructors in art-magic, and many instances of this are to be met with in tales and romances-
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of early Teutonic origin. The dwarfs were usually assisted by adventitious aids in their practice of magic, such as belts which endowed the wearer with strength, like that worn by King Laurin, shoes of swiftness, analogous to the seven-league boots of folk-tale, caps of invisibility, and so forth.
Witchcraft. — Witchcraft, with its accompaniment of diabolism was much more in favour among the northern Teutons than it was in Germany, and this circumstance has "been attributed to their proximity to the Finns (q.v.), a race notorious for its magical propensities. In Norway, Orkney, and Shetland, we find the practice of sorcery almost exclusively in the hands of women of Finnish race, and there is little doubt that the Finns exercised upon the Teutons of Scandinavia the mythic influence of a conquered race, that is, they took full advantage of the terror in- spired in their conquerors by an alien and unfamiliar religion and ritual, which partook largely of the magical. The principal machinery of Teutonic witchcraft was the raising of storms, the selling of pieces of knotted rope, each knot representing a wind, divination and prophecy, acquir- ing invisibility, and such magical practices as usually accom- pany a condition of semi-barbarism. In the North of Scotland the Teutonic and Celtic magical systems may be said to have met and fused, but not to have clashed, as their many points of resemblance outweighed their differ- •ences. As the sea was the element of the people, we find it the chief element of the witch of the northern Teutons. Thus we discover in the saga of Prithjof, the two sea- witches Heyde and Ham riding the storm and sent by Helgi to raise a tempest which would drown Frithjof, and taking the shape of a bear and a storm-eagle. In the saga ■of Grettir the Strong we find a witch- wife, Thurid, sending adrift a magic log which should come to Grettir's island, .and which should lead to his undoing. Animal transforma- tion plays a considerable part in Teutonic magic and witchcraft. In early Germany the witch (hexe) seems to Tiave been also a vampire.
Second Sight. — It was, however, in prophecy and divina- tion that the Teutons excelled, and this was more rife among the more northern branches of the people than the southern.' Prophetic utterance was usually induced by •ecstasy. But it was not the professional diviner alone who was capable of supernatural vision. Anyone under stress of excitement, and particularly if near death, might become " fey," that is prophetic, and great attention was invariably paid to utterances made whilst in this condition.
Literature. — Wilken, Die Prosaische Edda, Paderhorn, 1878 ; Grimm, Teutonic Mythology ; E. S. Bugge, Studies in Northern Mythology, 1884; Home of the Eddie Poems, 1899 ; H. A. Berger, Nordische Mythologie, 1834 ; E. H. Meyer, Germanische Mythologie, 1891 ; W. Goltha, Religion und, Mythen der Germanen, 1909.
"Thaumaturgy : (See Magic.)
Thau Weza : Burmese wizards, literally " wire-man who works in wire." (See Burma.)
Theobald, Morrell : (See Spiritualism.)
Theomancy : The part of the Jewish Kabala which studies the mysteries of the divine majesty and seeks the sacred names. He who possesses this science knows the future, commands nature, has full power over angels and demons, and can perform miracles. The Rabbis claimed that it was by this means that Moses performed so many marvels ; that Joshua was able to stop the sun ; that Elias caused fire to fall from heaven, and raised the dead ; that Daniel closed the mouths of the lions ; and that the three youths were not consumed in the furnace. However, although very expert in the divine names, the Jewish rabbis no longer perform any of the wonders done by their fathers.
Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steele Olcott. They met in America in 1874 where Colonel Olcott was engaged in spiritualistic investigation at the house of the Eddy Brothers in Vermont. Madame Blavatsky was, of course, deeply read in every thing pertaining to the occult and similarity of tastes very- naturally drew them together. Scientific materialism was then engaging general attention and making no little progress, and since theosophy is the antithesis of material- ism of any kind, it was decided that some society should be formed to combat this movement. In May, 1875, a Miracle Club was formed, but it was a failure. Later in the same year, in the month of September, a fresh attempt was how- ever, agreed on and this was made in November with Col. Olcott as president, and Madame Blavatsky as correspond- ing secretary, and a membership of twenty. This attempt seemed also to be doomed to failure, many members dropping off because no phenomena were manifested and indeed only Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky remained with two of the founders of the society and a few other members. Not discouraged by this, however, they decided to amalgamate with the Indian Society, but even this met with no more success, and it was not till by a happy inspiration the society was removed to India, that it began to attract attention and make headway. From that time its success was assured and, whatever opinions may be held of the soundness of theosophical teaching, no doubt can be entertained of the extent and influence of the society, which has numerous members in lands so far apart and so different in spirit as America and India, besides every other civilised country in the world. In accordance with the spirit- of theosophy, no dogma is demanded of members save acceptance of the belief in the brotherhood of man, so that Christian and Mohammedan may meet on equal terms without any necessity of varying their peculiar religious beliefs. Its activities include study of everything germane to theosophy, religion, philosophy, laws of nature whether patent to all mankind as in the domain of science, or hidden as yet from all but those with special knowledge, as in the domain of the occult. (See Theosophy.)
Theosophical Society of Agrippa : Agrippa (q.v.) established in Paris and other centres a secret theosophical society, the rites of admission to which were of a peculiar character. The fraternity also possessed signs of recognition. Agrippa visited London in 15 10, and whilst there he established a branch of the order in that city. A letter of Landulph's is extant in which he introduces to Agrippa a native of Nuremberg resident at Lyons, and whom he hopes '; may be found worthy to become one of the brotherhood."
Theosophy : From the Greek theos, god, and sophia, wisdom ; a philosophical-religious system which claims absolute knowledge of the existence and nature of the deity, and is not to be confounded with the later system evolved by the founders of the Theosophical Society. This knowledge, it is claimed, may be obtained by special individual revela- tion, or through the operation of some higher faculty. It is the transcendent character of the godhead of theosophical systems which differentiates them from the philosophical systems of the speculative or absolute type, which usually proceed deductively from the idea of God. God is con- ceived in theosophical systems as the transcendant source of being, from whom man in his natural state is far removed. Theosophy is practically another name for speculative mysticism. Thus the Kabalistic and Neoplatonic con- ceptions of the divine emanations are in reality theosophical, as are the mystical systems of Boehme and Baader.
Theosophy has also come to signify the tenets and teachings of the founders of the Theosophical Society. This Society was founded in the United States in 1875 by Madame H. P. Blavatsky (q.v.), Col. H. S. Olcott (q.v.)
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and others. Its objects were to establish a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, to promote the study of comparative religion and philosophy and to investigate the mystic powers of life and matter. The conception of the Universal Brotherhood was based upon the oriental idea of One Life — that ultimate oneness which underlies all diversity, whether inward or outward. The study of comparative religion was materialised into a definite system of belief, the bounds of which were •dogmatically fixed. It is set forth in the Theosophical system that all the great religions of the world originated from, one supreme source and that they are merely expres- sions of a central " Wisdom Religion " vouchsafed to various races of the earth in such a manner as was best suited to time and geographical circumstances. Underlying these was a secret doctrine or esoteric teaching which it was stated, had been the possession for ages of certain Mahatmas, or adepts in mysticism and occultism. With these Madame Blavatsky claimed to be in direct communi- cation, and she herself manifested occult phenomena, producing the ringing of astral bells, and so forth. On several occasions these efforts were unmasked as fraudu- lent, but that is no justification for believing that Madame Blavatsky was entirely a person of deceitful character. There can be very little doubt that she was one of those rare personalities who possess great natural psychic powers, which at times failing her, she was driven in self-protection to adopt fraudulent methods. The evidence for the existence of the " Great White Brotherhood " of Mahat- mas, the existence of which she asserted, is unfortunately somewhat feeble. It x'ests, for the most part, on the statements of Madame Blavatsky, Col. Olcott, Mr. Sinnet, Mr. Leadbeater, and others, who claimed to have seen or communicated with them. With every desire to do justice to these upholders of the Theosophical argument, it is necessary to point out that it has been amply proved that in occult, or pseudo-occult experiences, the question of self-hallucination enters very largely (See Witchcraft), and the ecstatic condition may be answerable for subjective appearances which seem real enough to the visionary. Again the written communications of the Mahatmas give rise to some doubt. It is pointed out for instance that one of them employed the American system of spelling, and this was accounted for by the circumstance that his English had been sophisticated by reading American books.
The revelations of Madame Blavatsky were in reality no more than a melange of Buddhistic, Brahministic and Kabalistic matter ; but the Theosophical Society has numbered within its members several persons of very high ability, whose statement and exegesis of their faith has placed it upon a much higher level and more definite foundation. If the system is intensely dogmatic, it is also constructed in a manner akin to genius, and evolved on most highly intricate lines. This system was to a great ■extent pieced together after the death of the original founder of the society, on which event a schism occurred in the Brotherhood through the claims to leadership of William Q. Judge, of New York, who died in 1896, and who was followed by Mrs. Katherine Tingley, the founder of the great theosophical community at Point Loma, Califor- nia. Col. Olcott became the leader of the remaining part of the original Theosophical Society in America and India, being assisted in his work by Mrs. Annie Besant, but a more or less independent organisation was founded in England.
A brief outline of the tenets of Theosophy may be attempted. It posits absolute belief in its views instead of blind faith. It professes to be the religion which holds the germs of all others. It has also its aspect as a science — a science of life and of the soul. The facts which it was to lay before humanity are as follow : — " There are three
truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of speech. The soul of man is immortal and its future is the future of the thing, whose growth and splendour has no limit. The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eter- nally beneficent, is not heard, or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception. Each man is his own absolute law-giver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment." Although Theosophy posits the existence of an Absolute, it does not pretend to knowledge of its attributes. In the Absolute are innumerable universes, and in each universe countless solar systems. Each solar system is the ex- pression of a being called the Logos, the Word of God, or Solar Deity, who permeates it and exists above it and outside it. Below this Solar Deity are his seven ministers, called Planetary Spirits, whose relation to him is like that of the nerve centres to the brain, so that all his voluntary acts come through him to them. (See Kabala.) Under them are vast hosts or orders of spiritual beings called devas, or angels, who assist in many ways. This world is ruled by a great official who represents the Solar Deity, which is in absolute control of all the evolution that takes place upon this planet. When a new religion is to be founded, this being either comes himself or sends one of his pupils to institute it. In the earlier stages of the develop- ment of humanity, the great officials of the hierarchy are provided from more highly evolved parts of the system, but whenever men can be trained to the necessary level of power and wisdom these offices are held by them. They can only be filled by adepts, who in goodness, power and wisdom are immeasurably greater than ordinary men, and have attained the summit of human evolution. These advance until they themselves become of the nature of deities. There are many degrees and many lines of activity among these, but some of them always remain within touch of the earth and assist in the spiritual evolution of humanity. This body it is which is called the " Great White Brotherhood." Its members do not dwell together, but live separately apart from the world and are in con- stant communication with one another and with their head. Their knowledge of higher forces is so great that they have no necessity for meeting in the physical world, but each dwells in his own country, and their power remains unsuspected among those who live near them. These adepts are willing to take as apprentices those who have resolved to devote themselves utterly to the service of mankind, and anyone who will may attract their attention by showing himself worthy of their notice. Such an apprentice was Madame Blavatsky. One of these masters has said : "In order to succeed the pupil must leave his own world and come into ours."
The formation of a solar system and the cosmogonic operation of the theosophical conception has been treated in several separate articles ; as have the various planes on which the personality of a man dwells in its long journey from earth to the final goal of Nirvana. The theosophical conception of the constitution of man is that he is in essence a spark of the divine fire belonging to the Monadic world (q.v.). For the purposes of human evolution this monad manifests itself in lower worlds. Entering the Spiritual World it manifests itself there as the triple spirit having its three aspects, one of which always remains in the Spiritual Sphere. The second aspect manifests itself in the Intuitional World ; and the third in the Higher Mental World ; and these two are collated with intuition and intelligence. These three aspects combined make up the ego which is man during the human stage of evolution. The way or path towards enlightenment and emancipation is known as karma. The human personality is composed
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of a complex organisation consisting of seven principles . which are -united and interdependent, yet divided into certain groups, each capable of maintaining a kind of personality. Each of these principles is composed of its own form of matter and possesses its own laws of time, space and motion. The most gross of those, the physical body, is known as rupa, which becomes more and more refined until we reach the universal self dlmd ; but the circumstance which determines the individual's powers, tests and advantages, or in short his character, is his karma, which is the sum of his bodily, mental and spiritual growth and is spread over many lives past and future ; in short, as man soweth, so must he reap ; and if in one existence he is handicapped by any defect, mental or physical, it may be regarded as the outcome of past delin- quencies. This doctrine is practically common to both Buddhism and Brahminism.
After this digression, which was entered into for the purpose of affording a fuller view of the theosophic con- ception of human personality, we return to the constitution of man. The ego existing in the Higher Mental World cannot enter the Physical World until it has drawn around itself a veil composed of the matter of these spheres : nor can it think in any but an abstract manner without them — its concrete ideas being due to them. Having assumed the astral and physical bodies, it is born as a human being ; and having lived out its earth-life sojourns for a time in the Astral World, until it can succeed in throwing off the shackles of the astral body. When that is achieved man finds himself living in his mental body. The stay in this sphere is usually a long one — the strength of the mental constitution depending upon the nature of the thoughts to which he has habituated himself. But he is not yet sufficiently developed to proceed to higher planes, and once more he descends into the denser physical sphere to again go through the same round. Although he come from on high into these lower worlds, it is only through that descent .that a full recognition of the higher worlds is developed in him.
In the Higher Mental World, the permanent vehicle is a causal body, which consists of matter of the first, second and third sub-divisions of that world. As the ego unfolds his latent possibilities in the course of his evolution, this matter is greatly brought into action ; but it is only in the perfect man, or adept, that it is developed to its fullest extent. In the causal body none of the possibilities of the grosser bodies can manifest themselves.
The mental body is built up of matter of the four lower sub-divisions of the Mental World, and expresses man's concrete thoughts. Its size and shape are determined by those of the causal vehicle.
While on earth the personality wears the physical, mental, and astral bodies all at once. It is the astral which connects him with the Astral World during sleep or trance (See Astral Plane.) It is easy to see how the doctrine of rein- carnation arose from this idea. The ego must travel from existence to existence, physical, astral, mental, until it transcend the Mental World and enter the higher spheres.
We have in this sketch attempted as far as possible to eschew the oriental verbiage of the older theosophical teachers, which it is understood is now replaced by more modern terms, but this we have retained in some of the lesser articles dealing with Theosophy.
The theosophic path to the goal of Nirvana is practically derived from Buddhistic teaching, but there are also other elements in it, — Kabalistic and Greek. The path is the great work whereby the inner nature of the individual is consciously transformed and developed. A radical alter- ation must be made in the aims and motives of the ordinary mortal. The path is long and difficult, and as has been
said extends over many existences. Morality alone is insufficient to the full awakening of the spiritual faculty, without which progress in the path is impossible. Some- thing incomparably higher is necessary. The physical and spiritual exercises recommended by Theosophy are those formulated in the Hindu philosophical system known as Raja Yoga. The most strenuous efforts alone can impel the individual along the path, and thus to mount by the practice of Vidyd, that higher wisdom which awakens the latent faculties and concentrates effort in the direction of union with the Absolute. The way is described as long and difficult, but as the disciple advances he becomes more convinced of his ultimate success, by the possession of transcendental faculties which greatly assist him to over- come difficulties. But these must not be sought for their own sake, as to gain knowledge of them for evil purposes is tantamount to the practice of Black Magic.
It is not pretended that in this brief sketch the whole of the theosophical doctrine has been set forth, and the reader who desires further information regarding it is recommended to the many and excellent handbooks on the subject which now abound. Theot : (See France.)
Theurgia Goetia : (See Key of Solomon the King.) Thian-ti-hwli — or Heaven and Earth League ; an ancient esoteric society in China, said to have still been in existence in 1674. The candidate before reception had to answer 333 questions. It professed to continue a system of brotherhood derived from ancient customs. Thomas the Rhymer : Scottish Soothsayer (circa, 1220.) It is impossible to name the exact date which witnessed the advent of the Scottish soothsayer, Thomas the Rhymer, who is well known on account of his figuring in a fine old ballad, duly included in Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. But Thomas is commonly supposed to have lived at the beginning of the thirteenth century, that period being assigned because the name, " Thomas Rimor de Ercildun," is appended as witness to a deed, whereby one " Petrus de Haga de Bemersyde " agrees to pay half a stone of wax annually to the Abbot of Melrose, and this " Petrus " has been identified with a person of that name known to have been living about 1 220. Ercildun is simply the old way of spelling Earlston, a village in the extreme west of Berwickshire, hard by the line demarking that county from Roxburgh ; and it would seem that Thomas held estates in this region, for he is mentioned as a landed-proprietor by several early writers, most of whom add that he did not hold his lands from the Crown, but from the Earls of Dunbar. Be that as it may, Thomas probably spent the greater part of his life in and around Earlston, and a ruined tower there, singularly rich in ivy, is still pointed out as having been his home, and bears his name ; while in a wall of the village church there is a lichened stone with the inscription : — " Auld Rhymour's Race Lies in this Place." and, according to local tradition, this stone was removed to its present resting place from one in a much older church, long since demolished. Nor are these things the only relics of the soothsayer, a lovely valley some miles to the west of Earlston being still known as " Rhymer's Glen " ; and it is interesting to recall that Turner painted a water- colour of this place, and no less interesting to remember that Sir Walter Scott, when buying the lands which eventually constituted his estate of Abbotsford, sought eagerly and at last successfully to acquire the glen in question. Naturally he loved it on account of its associa- tions with the shadowy past, and Lockhart tells that many of the novelist's happiest times were spent in this romantic place ; while he relates how Maria Edgworth visited it in
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1823, and that thenceforth Sir Walter used always to speak of a certain boulder in the glen as the " Edgworth stone," the lady writer whom he admired so keenly having rested here for a space. It seems probable, however, that the glen was so named by Scott himself.
It is thought that Thomas died about 1297, an(* it is clear that he had achieved a wide fame as a prophet, many references to his skill in this relation being found in writers who lived comparatively soon after him. A Harleian manuscript in the British Museum, known to have been written before 1320, discloses the significant phrase, " La Comtesse de Donbar demanda a Thomas de Essedoune quant la guere descoce prendreit fyn ; " but the lady in question was not a contemporary of the prophet. In Barbour's Bruce, composed early in the fourteenth century, ■we find the poet saying,
" Sikerly ■ I hop Thomas prophecy Off Hersildoune sail weryfied be." Andro of Winton, in the Originale Cronykil of Scotland, also makes mention of Thomas as a redoubtable prophet ; -while Walter Bower, the continuator of Fordun's Scotic- ronicon, recounts how once Rhymer was asked by the Earl of Dunbar what another day would bring forth, whereupon he foretold the death of the king, Alexander III., and the very next morning news of his majesty's ■decease was noised abroad. Blind Harry's Wallace, written midway through the fifteenth century, likewise contains an allusion to Thomas's prophesying capacities ; while coming to later times, Sir Thomas Gray, Constable of Norham, in his Norman-French Scalacronica, compiled during his captivity at Edinburgh Castle in 1555, speaks of the predictions of Merlin, which like those of " Banaster ou de Thomas de Ercildoune. . . . furount ditz en figure." A number of predictions attributed to Thomas the Rhy- mer are still current, for instance that weird verse which Sir Walter Scott made the motto of The Bride of Lammer- muir ; and also a saying concerning a Border family with which, as we have seen, the soothsayer was at one time associated :
" Betide, betide, whate'er betide,
There'll aye be Haigs at Bemersyde." It will be observed that both the foregoing are couched in metre, yet there is really no sure proof that the sooth- sayer was a poet. It is usually supposed that he acquired the sobriquet of Rhymer because he was a popular minstrel in his day, but the fact remains that Rymour was long a comparatively common surname in Berwickshire, and, while it may have originated with Thomas, the assumption has but slight foundation. Again, the prophet of Earlston has been credited with a poem on the story of Sir Tristram, belonging to the Arthurian cycle of romance, and the Advocate's Library contains a manuscript copy of this, probably written so early as 1300. However, while Sir Walter Scott and other authorities believed in this ascrip- tion, it is quite likely that the poem is but a paraphrase from some French troubadour. For generations, however, the Scottish peasantry continued to be influenced by the sayings attributed to " True Thomas," as they named him, as is witnessed by the publication during comparatively modern times of books containing the prophecies which he is said to have uttered.
Thoth : {See Hermes Trismegistus.)
Thought-Reading : A term somewhat loosely applied to various forms of apparent thought-transference, even where the method employed is muscle-reading or actual fraud. It must not be confused with telepathy, for, though both terms are sometimes used synonymously, the latter implies the direct action of one mind on another, independent of the ordinary sense-channels, while no such restrictions are
contained in the term " thought-reading." In early times, when outbursts of ecstatic frenzy were ascribed to demoniac possession, we find the ecstatics credited with the power to read thoughts ; witches were supposed to be endowed with the same faculty ; Paracelsus and the early magnetists recognised its existence. The advent of spiritualism gave to thought-reading a new impetus. It was now the spirits who read the thoughts of the sitters and replied to them with raps and table-turnings. Until quite recently, how- ever, thought-reading was attributed either to occultism or fraud. Not only was the " ethereal vibration " theory unthought of, but the phenomena of hyperaesthesia and " subconscious whispering " were very imperfectly under- stood in their bearing on thought-reading. Yet it is probable that these last offered a satisfactory explanation in many cases, especially when the subject was entranced. Pro- fessional thought-readers who performed on public plat- forms indulged largely in fraud. (See Telepathy.)
Thought Transference : (See Telepathy.)
Thought Vibrations, Theory of : {See Telepathy.)
Thrasyllus : (See Astrology.)
Tibet : In this country, the stronghold of Buddhism, all superstition circles around the national religion, which at the same time has absorbed into itself the aboriginal beliefs and demonology. Nowhere perhaps has such a vast amount of pure superstition crystallised around the kernel of Buddhism, — the pure doctrines of which were found by the Hindu conquerors of the Tibetans to be totally unsuited to the Hunnish aborigines of the country, who before the advent of Buddhism were in the aministic stage of religion. This was allowed to revive and rites and ceremonies, charms and incantations, of the very nature which Buddha had so strongly condemned, clustered quickly around his philosophy in Tibet. From this sprang the tantra system, which is almost a purely magical one. It was founded by Asanga, a monk of Peshawar, who composed its gospel, the Yogachchara Bhumi Sastra in the sixth century A.D. Basing his pantheon upon the debased system of Buddhism then prevalent, Asanga reconciled it to native requirements by placing a number of Saivite devil-gods and goddesses in the lower Buddhistic heavens. These he made sub- servient to the Buddha. His religion was speedily adopted by the barbarian tribes of Tibet, who sacrificed readily to the deities of this new religion. Very naturally they exaggerated the magical side of it, their main object being to obtain supernatural power by means of spoken spells and words of power. A very considerable literature sprang up in connection with the new faith, which has been scathingly commented upon by disciples of the purer Buddhism as being nothing more or less than mere barbarian sorcery. Of course the monkish class of lamas found it impossible altogether to ignore the tantra system, but Tsongkapa in the middle of the fourteenth century unhesi- tatingly condemned the whole system. The lamas had and have an esoteric form of Buddhism, which has but little in common with the tantra system of the people, but we find them at festivals and so on unbending so far as to represent the various devils and fiends of this faith. As literature, the tantras may be considered as a later develop- ment of the puranas, but they are without any poetic value. They are regarded as gospels by the Saktas, or worshippers of Kali, Durga or Purvati the wife of Siva, or some other creative agency. They abound in magical performances and mystic rites — a great many of which are of a quite unspeakable character. " They usually take the form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife. There were originally sixty-four tantras, but as yet no satisfactory scholarly examination has been made of them.
Tii : A Polynesian Vampire . (See Vampire.)
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Timseus of Locris : The earliest known writer on the doctrines of magic. The Timosan theory of God, the Universe, and the World-soul is thus set forth by Biisching : " God shaped the eternal unformed matter by imparting to it His being. The inseparable united itself with the separable ; the unvarying with the variable ; and, moreover, in the harmonic conditions of the Pythagorean system. To comprehend all things better, infinite space was imagined as divided into three portions, which are, — the centre, the circumference, and the intermediate space. The centre is most distant from the highest God, who inhabits the circumference ; the space between the two contains the celestial spheres. When God descended to impart His being, the emanations from Him penetrated the whole of heaven, and filled the same with imperishable bodies. Its power decreased with the distance from the source, and lost itself gradually in our world in minute portions, over which matter was still dominant. From this proceeds the continuous change of being and decay below the moon, where the power of matter predominates ; from this, also, arise the circular movements of the heaven and the earth, the various rapidities of the stars, and the peculiar motion of the planets. By the union of God with matter, a third being was created, namely, the world-soul, which vitalizes and regulates all things, and occupies the space between the centre and the circumference." i
Tinkers' Talk : (See Shelta Thari.) Tiromancy : Divination by means of cheese. It is practised
in divers ways the details of which are not known. Toltecs : (See Mexico and Central America.) Tomga : Eskimo familiar spirits. (See Eskimos.) Tongues, Speaking and Writing in : The speaking and writing in foreign tongues, or in unintelligible outpourings mistaken for such, is a very old form of psychic phenomenon. It was a frequent accompaniment of the epidemic ecstasy which was so common in mediaeval Europe. Thus the Nuns of Loudon (q.v.) are declared to have understood and replied to questions put to them in Latin, Greek, Spanish, Turkish, and other even less-known languages. The Tremblers of the Cevennes (q.v.) spoke in excellent French, whereas French was to them a foreign language. And practically every epidemic of the kind was character- ised by the speaking in tongues, which seemed to be infec- tious, and spread rapidly through whole communities. In these early cases the phenomenon was ascribed to the power of supernatural agencies, whether demons or angels, who temporarily controlled the organism of the "possessed." But analogous instances are to be found in plenty in the annals of modern spiritualism, where they are of course regarded as manifestations of the spirits of the deceased through the material organism of the medium. Compara- tively early in the movement there are evidences of speaking and writing in Latin, Greek, French, Swiss, Spanish, and Red Indian languages. . Judge Edmonds, the well-known American Spiritualist, testified to these faculties in his daughter and niece, who spoke Greek, Spanish, Polish, and Italian at various times, as well as Red Indian and other languages. Some of these cases are well attested. Two professional mediums (J. V. Mansfield and A. D. Ruggles) are known to have written automatically in many lan- guages, including Chinese and Gaelic, but whether or not they had any previous acquaintance with these languages remains at least a matter of doubt. In still more modern times speaking in tongues has been practised, notably by Helene Smith, who invented the " Martian language." On the whole, we may take it that the so-called foreign tongues were generally no more than a meaningless jumble of articulate sounds, of which the spirits themselves some- times purported to offer a translation. Where there is good evidence to show that the writings were actually
executed in a foreign language, as in the case of the pro- fessional mediums mentioned above, there is generally some reason to suppose a former acquaintance with the language, which the exaltation of memory incidental to the trance state might revive. When unknown tongues were written they were seldom found to correspond with any real language. Toolemak : Eskimo familiar spirits. (See Eskimos.) Totemism : (See Fetishism.)
Tower of London : The jewel-room of the Tower of London is reported to be haunted, and, in i860, there was published in Notes and Queries by the late Edmund Lenthal Swifte, Keeper of the Crown . Jewels the account of a spectral illusion witnessed by himself in the Tower. He says that in October, 1817, he was at supper with his wife, her sister, and his little boy, in the sitting-room of the jewel-house. To quote his own words : "I had offered a glass of wine and water to my wife, when, on putting it to her lips, she exclaimed, ' Good God ! what is that ? ' I looked up and saw a cylindrical figure like a glp.ss tube, seemingly about the thickness of my arm, and hovering between the ceiling and the table ; its contents appeared to be a dense fluid, white and pale azure. This lasted about two minutes, when it began to move before my sister-in-law ; then, following the oblong side of the table., before my son and myself, passing behind my wife, it paused for a moment over her right shoulder. Instantly crouching down, and with both hands covering her shoulder, she shrieked out, ' O Christ ! it has seized me ! ' ' "It was ascertained," adds Mr. Swifte, " that no optical action from the outside could have produced any manifestaion within, and hence- the mystery has remained unsolved." Speaking of the Tower, we learn from the same source how " one of the night sentries at the jewel-house was alarmed by a figure- like a huge bear issuing from underneath the jewel-room door. He thrust at it with his bayonet which stuck in the door. He dropped in a fit and was carried senseless to the guard-room. ... In another day or two the brave and steady soldier died." Tractatulus Alchimae : (See Avicenna.)
Trance : An abnormal state, either spontaneous or induced,, bearing some analogy to the ordinary sleep-state, but differing from it in certain marked particulars. The term is loosely applied to many varied pathologic conditions — e.g., hypnosis, ecstasy, catalepsy, somnambulism, certain- forms of hysteria, and the mediumistic trance. Some- times, as in catalepsy, there is a partial suspension of the vital functions ; generally, there is insensibility to pain and to any stimulus applied to the sense-organs ; while the distinguishing feature of the trance is that the subject retains consciousness and gives evidence of intelligence, either his own normal intelligence or, as in cases of posses- sion and impersonation, some foreign intelligence. In hypnosis the subject, though indifferent to sensory stimuli applied to his own person, has been known to exhibit a curious sensitiveness to such stimuli applied to the person of the hypnotist. (See Community of Sensation.) In Ecstasy, which is frequently allied with hallucination, the subject remains in rapt contemplation of some transcen- dental vision, deaf and blind to the outside world. It was formerly considered to indicate that the soul of the ecstatic was viewing some great event distant in time or place or some person or scene from the celestial sphere. Now-a-days such a state is believed to be brought about by intense and sustained emotional concentration on some particular mental image, by means of which hallucination may be induced.
The mediumistic trance is recognised- as having an affinity with hypnosis, for the hypnotic trance, frequently induced, may gradually become spontaneous, when it exhibits strong resemblances to the trance of the medium.
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This latter is, among spiritualists, "The Trance" par excellence, and they object to the term being applied in any case where there is no sign of spirit " possession." The entranced medium — who seems able to produce this state at will — frequently displays an exaltation of memory (hypermesia), of the special senses (hyperaesthesia), and even of the intellectual faculties. Automatic- writing and utterances are generally produced in the trance state, and often display knowledge of which the medium normally knows nothing, or which, according to some authorities, gives evidence of telepathy. Such are the trance utterances of Mrs. Piper, whose automatic phenomena have in recent years provided a wide field for research for many men of science both in Britain and on the Continent. Naturally these phenomena, and those of all trance mediums, are referred by spiritualists to the agency of disembodied intelligences — the spirits of the dead — acting through the medium's physical organism, a notion which is akin to the old idea of demoniac possession," to which spontaneous trance was referred. Moreover, the trance messages them- selves purported to come from the spirits of deceased persons and there are many who see no reason to disbelieve the emphatic assertion of the " intelligence," especially when that assertion is supplemented by an exact representation of the voice, appearance, and known opinions of the deceased friend or relative whose spirit it claims to be. Such trance impersonations supply a large part of the evidence on which the structure of spiritualism rests. There is, however, nothing to show that the information concerning the deceased, thus reproduced, may not have been obtained by normal means, or, at the most, telepathi- cally from the minds of the sitters. Trance Personalities : Trance messages purporting to come from the medium's spirit control do not as a rule reveal a very definite personality. The control reflects the thoughts and opinions of the medium and the sitters, possesses little knowledge that they do not possess, and is in general a somewhat colourless creature. Yet not infre- quently a trance medium is controlled by a spirit of distinct, not to say distinguished, personality, whose education and culture are on a much higher plane than the medium's own, and whose ideas and opinions are quite independent. Such spirits are generally given distinguishing names. They often control the medium alternately with other controls. On tne other hand, the medium has generally a monopoly of one or more of these spirits, though sometimes one control may be shared by a number of mediums. Among those who may justly be regarded as the common property of the mediumistic fraternity are the spirits of certain great men — -Virgil, Socrates, Shakespeare, Milton, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Swedenborg, and so on. The messages delivered through their control seldom resemble anything they wrote during their lives. It would indeed be ludicrous to hold these great men responsible for the feeble outpourings delivered in their name. But these spirits come and go ; it is perhaps hardly accurate to call them trance personalities at all. Among the best known of the latter class are the spirits who purported to control the late Mr. Stainton Moses — Imperator, Rector, Mentor, Prudens, and others. What the real names of these controls may be is not known, for Mr. Moses only revealed the secret to a few of his most intimate friends. Imperator and Rector were among the controls of Mrs. Piper in still more recent years, and indeed much of her automatic discourse did not come directly from the com- municating spirits, but was dictated by them to Rector. It is suggested, however, by Sir Oliver Lodge and other authorities, that the controls of Mrs. Piper are not identical with those of Stainton Moses, by whom were written through his hand the well-known Spirit Teachings, but are merely
masqueraders. But Mrs. Piper has several interesting trance personalities of her own, without borrowing from anybody. One of her earliest controls was Sebastian Bach, but ere long he gave place to a spirit calling himself " Dr. Phinuit," who held sway for a considerable time, but gave place in his turn to George Pelham — " G.P." Pelham was a young author and journalist who died suddenly in 1892. Soon after his death he purported to control Mrs, Piper, and gave many striking proofs of his identity. He- constantly referred, with intimate knowledge, to the affairs of Pelham, recognised his friends, and gave to each his due meed of welcome. Not once, it is said, did he fail to» recognise an acquaintance, or give a greeting to one whom he did not know. Many of Pelham's old friends did not hesitate to see in him that which he claimed to be. Only on one occasion, when asked for the names of two persons who had been associated with him in a certain enterprise, " G.P." refused, saying that as there was present one who knew the names, his mentioning them would be referred to telepathy ! Later, however, he gave the names — incor- rectly. When " G.P." ceased to take the principle part in, the control of Mrs. Piper, his place was taken by Rector and Imperator, as mentioned above. Another well-known medium, Mrs. Thompson, had as her chief control " Nelly," a daughter of hers who had died in infancy ; also a Mrs.. Cartwright, and others. These controls of Mrs. Thomson are said not to have shown any very individual character- istics, but to resemble Mrs. Thomson herself very strongly both in voice and manner of speech, though Mrs. Verrall has stated that the impersonations gave an impression of separate identity to the sitter. Mrs. Thomson's early trance utterances were controlled by another band of spirits, with even less individuality than those mentioned. Frequently the mediums and investigators themselves, on- reaching the discarnate plane, become controls in their turn. The late Mr. Myers, Mr. Gurney, Dr. Hodgson, and Professor Sidgwick purported to speak and write through many mediums, notably through Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. Many of the statements made by these controls were correct, and some matters revealed which were apparently outside the scope of the medium's normal knowledge, but at the same time several fatal discrepancies were found to exist between the controls and those they were supposed to represent. Thus the script produced by Mrs. Holland contained grave warnings, purporting to come from Myers, against Eusapia- Palladino and her physical phenomena, whereas Myers was known to hold in his lifetime opinions favourable to the physical manifestations. On the whole these trance personalities show themselves decidedly coloured by the- personality of the medium. In cases where the latter was- acquainted with the control the trance personality is pro- portionately strong, whereas when there was no personal acquaintance it is often of a neutral tint, and sometimes- bad guesses are made, as when Mrs. Holland represented the Gurney control as of a brusque and almost discourteous- temperament. But such instances must not be taken as impeaching the medium's good faith. Even where the trance personality is patently the product of the medium's own consciousness, there is no reason to suppose that there is any intentional deception. While in some of the most definite cases the evidence for the operation of a discarnate intelligence is very good indeed, and has proved satisfactory to many prominent investigators.
Transformation : {See Spells.)
Transmutation of Metals : (See Alchemy.)
Transmutation of the Body : This is indeed the end and aim of all Alchemy — to restore man to his primordial con- dition of grace, strength, perfection, beauty and physical immortality. With this in view the alchemists of all the-
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Trevisan, Bernard
ages have laboured to discover the secret of the Elixir of Life, which mystics believed would, literally, achieve this renewal of youth, and therefore immortality. Endless receipts for this medicine have been given, and some honestly believed they had attained it ; but all to no purpose, and the great secret still remains hidden from human eyes.
Tree Ghosts : Indian tree spirits. Says Mr. Crookes in his Popular Religion of Northern India. " These tree ghoss are, it is needless to say, very numerous. Hence most local shrines are constructed under trees ; and in one particular tree, the Bira, the jungle tribes of Mirzapur locate Bagheswar, the tiger godling, one of their most dreaded deities. In the Konkan, according to Mr. Camp- bell, the medium or Bhagat who becomes possessed is called Jkad, or ' tree,' apparently because he is a favourite dwelling-place for spirits. In the Dakkhin it is believed that the spirit of the pregnant woman of Churel lives in a tree, and the Abors and Padams of East Bengal believe that spirits in trees kidnap children. Many of these tree spirits appear in the folk-tales. Thus, Devadatta worshipped a tree which one day suddenly clave in two and a nymph appeared who introduced him inside the tree, where was a heavenly palace of jewels, in which, reclining on a couch, appeared Vidyatprabha, the maiden daughter of the king of the Yakshas ; in another story the mendicant hears inside a tree the Yaksha joking with his wife. So Daphne is turned into a tree to avoid the pursuit of her lover."
Tree of Life, The, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil : Two of the trees planted by God in the Garden of Eden, which were believed by St. Ambrose to be of mystical significance. The former is understood to be the manifestation of God, and the latter of the worldly wisdom to which our human nature is too apt to incline.
Tremblers of the Cevennes : A Protestant caste of convul- sonaires, who during the sixteenth century spread them- selves from their centre in the Cevennes over almost the whole of Germany. They possessed many points of resemblance with cases of possession (q.v.), and are said to have been insensible to thrusts and blows with pointed sticks and iron bars, as well as to the oppression of great weights. They had visions, communicated with good and evil spirits, and are said to have performed many miraculous cures similar to the apostolic miracles. They made use of very peculiar modes of treatment called grandes secours or secours meurlriers, which are authenticated by the reports of eye-witnesses and by judicial documents. Although they were belaboured by the strongest men with heavy pieces of wood and bars of iron weighing at least thirty pounds, they complained of no injury, but of experiencing a sensation of pleasure. They also were covered with boards, on which as many as twenty men stood without its being painful to them. They even bore as many as loo blows with a twenty-pounds weight, alternately applied to the breast and the stomach with such force that the room trembled, and they begged that the blows might be laid on harder, as light ones only increased their sufferings. Indeed only those who laid on the heaviest and most strenuous blows were thanked by their sick. It seemed that it was only when the power of these blows had penetrated to the most vital parts that they experienced real relief. Ennemoser explains this insen- sibility to pain by stating that in his experience " spasmodic convulsions maintain themselves against outward attempts, and even the greatest violence, with almost superhuman strength, without injury to the patient, as has often been observed in young girls and women, where anyone might have almost been induced to believe in supernatural influence. The tension of the muscles increases in power with the insensibility of the power, so that no outward
force is equal to it ; and when it is attempted to check the paroxysm with force, it gains in intensity, and accord- ing to some observers not less psychical than physical. . . . I have observed the same manifestations in children, in Catholics, Protestants and Jews, without the least variation, on which account I consider it to be nothing more than an immense abnormal and inharmonic lusus natures." Trevisan, Bernard : This Italian alchemist's life was a curious and intensely pathetic one. Bent on discovering the philosopher's stone, he began at an early age to lavish huge sums of money on the pursuit ; but again and again he was baffled, and it was only when old age was stealing upon him, and he had disbursed a veritable fortune, that his labours were crowned with some measure of success.
Bernard Trivisan, Comte de la Marche, was born in the year 1406 at Padua, a town whose inhabitants were famous for erudition throughout many centuries in the middle ages. His father was a doctor of medicine, so it is probable that Bernard received his initial training in science at home ; while ere he was out of his teens he began to devote himself seriously to alchemy, having been lured thereto by reading the works of the famous Eastern philosophers, Geber and Rhasis. Bernard's father was rich, and accordingly, whenever it was known that the young man was minded to dabble in gold-seeking, he found himself surrounded by charlatans offering counsel ; and his very first experiments resulted in his spending upwards of three thousand crowns, the bulk of which sum went into the pockets of the youth's fraudulent advisers. He was not discouraged, however ; and, finding new henchmen, and at the same time aug- menting his learning by a close study of the writings of Sacrobosco and Rupecissa, he proceeded to make a new series of attempts. But these also proved futile, once more the alchemist did no more than enrich his assistants, and in consequence he vowed that henceforth he would prosecute his researches single-handed.
Bernard now engaged in a long course of sedulous reading,, while he also began to give much time to prayer, thinking by this means to gain his desired end ; and anon he started fresh experiments, expending on these some six thousand crowns. But again his devotion and extrava- gance went unrewarded, year after year went by in this - fashion, and betimes Bernard realised that he was past the prime of life, yet had achieved nothing whatsoever. His bitter disappointment engendered an illness, but scarcely was he restored to health ere he heard that one Henry, a German priest, had succeeded in creating the philosopher's stone ; and thereupon Bernard hastened to Germany, accompanied by various other alchemists. After some difficulty they made the acquaintance of the cleric in question, who told them he would disclose all would they but furnish a certain sum of money to procure the necessary tools and materials ; so they paid as desired, yet having devoted much time to watching the German at work they found themselves no nearer the goal than before.
This last piece of quackery opened Bernard's eyes, and he proclaimed his decision of eschewing hermetic philosophy altogether in the future — a decision which was warmly applauded by his relatives, for already his researches had cost a king's ransom. But it soon transpired that the alchemist was quite incapable of clinging to his resolution, and, growing more ardent than ever, he visited Spain and Great Britain, Holland and France, trying in each of these countries to enlarge his stock of learning, and to make the acquaintance of others who were searching like himself. Eventually he even penetrated to Egypt, Persia and Palestine, while subsequently he travelled in Greece, where he witnessed many alchemistic researches ; yet all proved vain, and ultimately Bernard found himself im- poverished, and was forced to sell his parental estates.
Triad
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Being thus without so much as a home, he retired to the Island oi Rhodes, intending to live there quietly for the rest of his days ; but even here his old passion continued to govern him, and, chancing to make the acquaintance of a priest who knew something of science, the thwarted and ruined alchemist proposed that they should start fresh experiments together. The cleric professed himself willing to give all the help in his power, so the pair borrowed a large sum of money to admit of their purchasing the necessary paraphernalia ; and it was here, then, in this secluded island, and while in a literally bankrupt con- dition, that Bernard, made the wonderful discovery with which he is traditionally credited. Doubtless the tradition has little foundation in fact, yet at least the philosopher deserved some reward for his indomitable if foolhardy perseverance, and it is pathetic to recall that his death occurred soon after the day of his triumph.
In contradistinction to the majority of his brother- alchemists, Bernard appears to have loved actual experi- ments much better than writing about them. It is probable however, that he was at least partly responsible for an octavo volume published in 1643, Le Bernard d'Alchmague, cum Bernard Treveso ; while he is commonly credited with another work also, La Philosophic Naturelle des Metaux. Herein he insists on the necessity of much meditation on the part of the scientist who would create the philosopher's stone, and this rather trite observation is followed by a voluminous alchemistic treatise, most of it sadly obscure, and demonstrating the author no great expert.
Triad : (See God.)
Triad Society : An ancient esoteric society of China. The candidate scantily clothed, is brought into a dark room by two members, who lead him to the President, before whom he kneels. He is given a living cock and a knife, and in this posture he takes a complicated oath to assist his brethren in any emergency, even at the risk of his life. He then cuts off the head of the cock, and mingles it with his own, the three assisting individuals adding some of their own blood. After being warned that death will be his portion should he divulge the secrets of the society, he is initiated into them, and is entrusted with the signs of recognition which are in triads. For example a member must lift any object with three fingers only. This society, originally altruistic, is now of a political character.
Triangle : (See Magic.)
Trident, Magical : (See Magic.)
Trine, Ralph Waldo : (See New Thought.)
Tripod : (See Necromancy.)
Trithemius : The son of a German vine-grower, named Heidenberg, received his Latinized appellation from Trittheim, a village in the electorate of Treves, where he was born in 1462. He might reasonably be included among those earnest and enthusiastic souls who have persevered in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties ; for his mother, marrying a second time, had no love for the offspring of her first marriage. The young Trithemius was ill-fed, ill- clothed, and over-worked. All day he toiled in the vine- yards ; but the nights he was able to devote to the acquisi- tion of knowledge, and then he stole away from his miserable home, and perused what books he could beg or borrow, by the light of the moon. As his mind expanded he became sensible of the vast stores of learning to which his cir- cumstances denied him access. He could not rest content with the few grains of sand he had picked up on the sea- shore. Extorting his small share of the patrimony be- queathed by his father, he wandered away to Treves, entered himself a student of its celebrated University, and assumed the name of Trithemius. His progress was now as rapid as might be inferred probable from the intensity of his aspirations and the keenness of his intellect. At the
age of twenty he had acquired the reputation of a scholar — a reputation which was of greater advantage in the 15th than it is in the 20th century. He was now desirous of once more seeing the mother whom he did not love the less because she had ill-used him, and in the winter of 1482 he quitted the cloistered shade of Treves on a solitary journey to Trittheim. It was a dark day, ending in a gloomy, fast-snowing night, and the good student, on his arrival near Spannheim, found the roads impassable. He sought refuge in a neighbouring monastery. There the weather imprisoned him for several days. The imprison- ment proved so much to the lilting of Trithemius, that he voluntarily took the monastic vows, and retired from the world. In the course of two years he was elected abbot, and devoting all his little fortune to the repair and im- provement of the monastery, he gained the love and reverence of the brotherhood, whom he inspired with his own love of learning. But after a rule of one-and-twenty years, the monks forgot all his benefits, and remembered only the severity of his discipline. They broke out in revolt, and elected another abbot. The deposed Trithe- mius quitted Spannheim, and wandered from place to place, until finally elected Abbot of St. James of Wurzburg, where he died in 1516.
His fame as a magician rests on very innocent foundations He devised a species of short-hand called steoganographia, which the ignorant stigmatized as a cabalistical and necro- mantic writing, concealing the most fearful secrets. He wrote a treatise on the subject ; another upon the supposed administration of the world by its guardian angels — a revival of the good and evil geniuses of the Ancients — which William Lilly translated into English in 1647 ; a third urion Geomancy, or divination-by means of lines and circles on the ground ; a fourth upon Sorcery ; and a fifth upon Alchemy. In his work upon Sorcery he makes the earliest mention of the popular story of Dr. Faustus, and records the torments he himself occasionally suffered from the malice of a spirit named Hudekin. He is said to have gratified the Emperor Maximilian with a vision of his deceased wife, the beautiful Mary of Burgundy, and was reputed to have defrayed the expenses of his monastic establishment at Spannheim by the resources which the Philosopher's Stone put at his disposal. His writings show him to have been an amiable and credulous enthusiast but his sincere and ardent passion for knowledge may well incline us to forgive the follies which he only shared with most of the scholars and wise men of his age.
Triumphal Chariot of Antimony : (See Valentine, Basil.)
Trivah : Among the natives of Borneo the trivah, or feast of the dead, is celebrated after a death has taken place. A panel containing a representation of Tempon-teloris' ship of the dead (q.v.) is generally set up at the trivah, and sacrifices of fowls are offered to it. Until the trivah has been celebrated the soul's soul is unable to reach the Levu-liau.
True Black Magic, Book of the : A Grimoire, which is simply an adapted version of the Key of Solomon (q.v.)
Tsithsith, The : An article of apparel, believed to be endowed with talismanic properties. A sentence in the Talmud runs thus : " Whoever has the tephillin bound to his head
and arm, and the tsithsith thrown over his garments
is protected from sin.
Tumah : According to the Kabala, physical or moral unclean- ness. The latter is divided into three main divisions — idolatry, murder, and immorality. Sin, says the same authority, not only rendered imperfect man himself, but also affected the whole of nature, even to the sphere of angels, and the Divinity himself. In physical uncleanness there is a coarser and a more subtle form. The latter causes a dimness in the soul which is most keenly felt by those
CC
Tunisa
418
Urim and Thummim
who are nearest to sacred things. Organic things which come into contact with the human body are more liable to the Tumah than remoter things. The human corpse is more unclean than that of the lower animals, because its more complex nature involves a more repulsive decay. Thus the corpse of a holy man is most unclean of all.
Tunisa : Burmese diviners. (See Burma.)
Turcomans : (See Siberia.)
Turner, Ann : English witch. (See England.)
Turquoise : A good amulet for preventing accidents to
horsemen, and to prevent them wearying. It moves itself when any danger threatens its possessor. Typtology : The science of communicating with the spirits by means of rapping, various codes being arranged for the purpose. Thus the sitters may read the alphabet aloud, or slowly pass a pencil down a printed alphabet, the rappings indicating the correct letters which, on being joined to- gether, form a message or an answer to some question propounded. One rap may be made to mean " yes," two " no," and so on. (See Rappings.)
u
Ulysses : (See Michael Maer.)
Unguents : There are many kinds of unguents, each with its peculiar properties. It is known that the devil compounds them in order to harm the human race. One such unguent is composed of human fat, and is used by the witches to enable them to fly through the air to the Sabbath. Many old recipes exist for unguents to induce sleep, visions, etc., and these are compounded from various strange ingredients. (See Salverte " Les Science Occultes.")
Union Spirite Bordelaise (Journal) : (See France.)
Univerccelum, The : An American periodical having for its aim " the establishment of a universal System of Truth, the Reform and Reorganisation of Society." It made its first appearance in December, 1847, under the editorship of Andrew Jackson Davis (q.v.), and lived for about a year and a half. Its supporters and contributors looked for a new revelation to supplement those of the Old and New Testaments, Swedenborg and Fourier. Attention was given in its pages to prophecy, clairvoyance, somnam- bulism and trance phenomena generally, while it also taught "an interior and spiritual philosophy " whose central idea was that God was the infinitely intelligent Essence which pervaded all things — the Universal Soul, expressing itself in the material universe and the laws of nature as the human soul expresses itself through the material body. Though the Rochester Rappings broke out some time before the Univerccelum came to an end, the adherents of the paper did not seem to connect the distur- bances with their propaganda. However, many of those who were associated with the Univerccelum afterwards became editors of spiritualistic papers. , In July, 1849 the paper passed out of the hands of A. J. Davis, and became The Present Age, under the editorship of W. M. Channing.
Universal Balm : An elixir composed by the alchemists, which formed a sovereign remedy for every malady, and would even bring the dead to life.
Universities (Occult) : In many works on the occult sciences allusions are made to schools and universities for the in- struction of those who were drawn to them. Thus we are told that Salamanca abounded in such schools ; that Jechiel, a Jewish Rabbi of mediaeval France, kept such a seminary ; and there is reason to believe that in all ages such institutions were by no means uncommon. Balzac alludes to one of them in a well-known novel The Secret of Ruggier, which he places at the time of Catherine de Medici.
great universities. Thus Paracelsus lectured on alchemy at the University of Basel, and he was preceded and followed there and elsewhere by many illustrious professors of that and other occult arts. M. Figuier in his work Alchemy and the Alchemists (See Alchemy), alludes to a school in Paris frequented by alchemists, which he himself attended in the middle of the last century. The school — an ordinary chemical laboratory through the day — became in the evening a centre of the most elaborate alchemical study, where Figuier met many alchemical students, visionary and practical, with one of whom he had a prolonged argu- ment, which we have outlined at considerable length in the article " Alchemy." Many professors of the occult sciences in early and later times drew around them con- siderable bands of students and assistants and formed distinct schools for the practice of magic and alchemy, principally the latter. The College of Augurs in Rome and the Calmecac of Ancient Mexico are distinct examples of institutions for the study of at least one branch of occult science, and in this connection the House of Wisdom of the Ismaelite sect at Cairo may be mentioned. It is likely that in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, institutions of the kind flourished more or less in secret. Mme. Blavatsky insisted to the last that a great " school " of illuminated occult adepts flourished in Tibet ; but as nobody except herself and her immediate friends ever saw them, or had any dealings with them ; and as all proof is against the existence of such a semi-divine brotherhood, her statements must be taken as being somewhat open to question. There is, however, no reason to doubt that bodies of men who study the higher occultism do exist in various Asiatic centres, whatever the nature of their powers, supernormal or otherwise, may be. Vague rumours reach students of occultism every now and again of schools or colleges on the continent of Europe, the purpose of which is to train aspirants in the occult arts ; but as definite information is seldom forthcoming regarding these, they can only be merely alluded to here. The " School for the Discovery of the Lost Secrets of Antiquity," which flourishes at Lotus-land, California, was founded by Catherine Tingley late in the nineteenth century, and is under theosophical regime. Numerous small bodies for the study of occultism exist in every town of considerable size in Europe and America ; but these cannot be dignified even by the name of " schools," as they are for the most part private affairs, the occultism of which is of an extremely amateurish and innocent character.
He says, " At this epoch the occult sciences were cultivated
with an ardour which put to shame the incredulous spirit Ura : A spirit. (See Babylonia.)
of our century. . . . The universal protection accorded to Urgund : (See Boehme.)
these sciences by the ruling sovereigns of the times was Urim and Thummim : A means of divination employed by
quite remarkable." He goes on to say that at the commence- the ancient Hebrews, and which it was believed consisted
ment of the sixteenth century Ruggier was the member of of a species of casting lots. Their form and method of use
a secret university for the study of the occult sciences, where astrologers, alchemists, and others, studied several branches of hidden knowledge ; but he gives no details as to its locality, or as to the exact nature of its curriculum. There is no doubt that during the Middle Ages many extra- mural lecturers taught alchemy and kindred subjects at the
is uncertain, but from passages in the Book of Samuel, it seems probable that (1) they were used to determine guilt and innocence, and (2) that this was done by means of categorical questions, to which the suspected person answered " Yes " or " No." They appear to have been the prerogative of the priesthood.
Valentine, Basil
419
Vampire
Valentine, Basil : This German adept in hermetic philosophy- is commonly supposed to have been born at Mayence towards the close of the fourteenth century. As a young man he espoused holy orders, and it is recorded that he entered the Abbey of St. Peter, at Erfurt, and eventually became its Prior ; but otherwise very little is known con- cerning him, and even the date of his death is uncertain. He appears to have been a very modest person, for accord- ing to Olaus Borrichius, the author of De Ortu et Progressu Chemice, Valentine imprisoned all the manuscripts of his scientific writings inside one of the pillars of the Abbey Church ; and there they might have remained for an indefinite period, but a thunderstorm chanced ultimately to dislodge them from their curious hiding-place. It is possible, of course, that this incarceration was not alto- gether due to modesty on the writer's part, and arose rather from his dreading a visitation from the Inquisition in the event of their discovering his alchemistic proclivities ; but be that as it may, Valentine's works certainly mark him as a very shrewd man and a capable scientist. In con- tradistinction to most analogous mediaeval literature, his treatises are not all couched in Latin, some of them being in high Dutch and others in the author's native German ; and prominent among those in the latter tongue is The Triumphal Chariot of A ntimony, first published at Leipsic in* 1 624. Herein Valentine exalts antimony as an excellent medicine, while the volume likewise embodies a lengthy metrical treatise on the philosopher's stone, the writer contending that whoso would discover and use this must do charitable deeds, mortify the flesh, and pray without ceasing.
As regards the alchemist's further writings, it behoves to mention his Apocalypsis Chymica, De Microcosmo degue Magna Mundi Mysterio et Medecina Hominis and Practica
" una cum duodecim Clavibus et Appendice. All these were originally published in Germany at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and divers passages in them demon- strate that the author understood the distillation of brandy, and was acquainted with the method of obtaining chlorohydric acid from salt-water ; while moreover, reverting to his faith in antimony, he has been credited with having been the first to extract this from sulphuret.
Vampire : (Russian Vampir, South Russian upuir, probably from the root pi, to drink, with the prefix va, or av.) A dead person who returns in spirit form from the grave for the purpose of destroying and sucking the blood of living persons, or a living sorcerer who takes a special form for the same purpose. The conception of the vampire is rifest among Slavonic peoples, and especially in the Balkan countries, and in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, and in these territories from 1730-35 there was a well-marked epidemic of vampirism, but it is by no means confined to them. In White Russia and the Ukraine it is believed that vampires are generally wizards or sorcerers, but in Bulgaria and Serbia it is thought that any corpse over which a cat or a dog jumps or over which a bird has flown is liable to become a vampire. In Greece (q.v.) a vampire is known as a broncolaia or bourkabakos, which has been identified with the Slavonic name for " werewolf " (q.v.), vlkodlak, or vuhodlak. The vampire, too, is often supposed to steal the heart of his victim and to roast it over a slow fire, thus causing interminable amorous longings.
Marks of Vampirism. — Vampirism is epidemic in char- acter. Where one instance is discovered it is almost invariably followed by several others. This is accounted for by the circumstance that it is believed that the victim of a vampire pines and dies and becomes in turn a vampire
himself after death, and so duly infects others. On the disinterment of a suspected vampire various well-known signs are looked for by experienced persons. Thus, if several holes about the breadth of a man's finger, are observed in the soil above the grave the vampire character of its occupant may be suspected. On unearthing the corpse it is usually found with wide-open eyes, ruddy and life-like complexion and lips and a general appearance of freshness, and showing no signs of corruption. It may also be found that the hair and nails have grown as in life. On the throat two small livid marks may be looked for. The coffin is also very often full of blood, the body has a swollen and gorged appearance, and the shroud is fre- quently half-devoured. The blood contained in the veins of the corpse is found on examination to be in a fluid condition as in life, and the limbs are pliant and flexible and have none of the rigidity of death.
Examples of Vampirism. — Many well-authenticated ex- amples of vampirism exist. Charles Ferdinand de Schertz in his work Magia Posthuma printed at Olmutz in 1706 relates several stories of apparitions of this sort, and particularises the mischief done by them. One*, among others, is of a herdsman of the village of Blow near the town of Kadam in Bohemia, who appeared for a considerable length of time, and visited several persons, who all died within eight days. At last, the inhabitants of Blow dug up the herdsman's body, and fixed it in the ground with a stake driven through it. The man, even in this condition, laughed at the people that were employed about him, and told them they were very obliging to furnish him with a stick with which to defend himself from the dogs. The same night he extricated himself from the stake, frightened several persons by appearing to them, and occasioned the death of many more than he had hitherto done. He was then delivered into the hands of the~hang- man, who put him into a cart, in order to burn him without the town. As they went along, the carcass shrieked in the most hideous manner, and threw about its arms and legs, as if it had been alive ; and upon being again run through with a stake, it gave a loud cry, and a great quantity of fresh, florid blood issued from the wound. At last, the body was burned to ashes, and this execution put a final stop to the spectre's appearing and infecting the village.
Calmet in his Dissertation on Vampires appended to his Dissertation upon Apparitions (English translation, 1759), gives several well authenticated instances of vampirism as follows : —
" It is now about fifteen years since a soldier, who was quartered in the house of a Haidamack peasant, upon the frontiers of Hungary, saw, as he was at the table with his landlord, a stranger come in and sit down by them. The master of. the house and the rest of the company were strangely terrified, but the soldier knew not what to make of it. The next day the peasant died, and, upon the soldier's enquiring into the meaning of it, he was told that it was his landlord's father, who had been dead and buried above ten years, that came and sat down at table, and gave his son notice of his death.
" The soldier soon propagated the story through his regiment, and by this means it reached the general officers, who commissioned the count de Cabreras, a captain in Alandetti's regiment of foot, to make an exact enquiry into the fact. The count, attended by several officers, a surgeon, and a notary, came to the house, and took the deposition of all the family, who unanimously swore that the spectre was the landlord's father, and that all the soldier had said was strictly true. The same was also attested by all the inhabitants of the village.
Vampire
420
Vampire
" In consequence of this the body of the spectre was dug up, and found to be in the same state as if it has been but just dead, the blood like that of a living person. The count de Cabreras ordered its head to be cut off, and the corpse to be buried again. He then proceeded to take depositions against other spectres of the same sort, and particularly against a man who had been dead above thirty years, and had made his appearance three several times in his own house at meal-time. At his first visit he had fastened upon the neck of his own brother, and sucked his blood ; at his second, he had treated one of his children in the same manner ; and the third time, he fastened upon a servant of the family, and all three died upon the spot.
" Upon this evidence, the count gave orders that he should be dug up, and being found, like the first, with his blood iii a fluid state, as if he had been alive, a great nail was drove through his temples, and he was buried again. The count ordered a third to be burnt, who had been dead above sixteen years, and was found guilty of murdering two of his own children by sucking their blood. The com- missioner then made his report to the general officers, who sent a deputation to the emperor's court for further direc- tions ; and the emperor dispatched an order for a court, consisting of officers, lawyers, physicians, chirurgeons, and some divines, to go and enquire into the cause of these extraordinary events, upon the spot.
" The gentleman who acquainted me with all these particulars, had them from the count de Cabreras himself, at Fribourg in Brisgau, in the year 1730."
Other instances alluded to by Calmet are as follows : — " In the part of Hungary, known in Latin by the name' of Oppida Heidonum, on the other side of the Tibiscus, vulgarly called the Teyss ; that is, between that part of this river which waters the happy country of Tockay, and the frontiers of Transylvania, the people named Heydnkes have a notion that there are dead persons, called by them vampires, which suck the blood of the living, so as to make them fall away visibly to skin and bones, while the car- casses themselves, like leeches, are filled with blood to such a degree that it comes out at all the apertures of their body. This notion has lately been confirmed by several facts, which I think we cannot doubt the truth of, con- sidering the witnesses who attest them. Some of the most considerable of these facts I shall now relate.
" About five years ago, an Heyduke, named Arnold Paul, an inhabitant of Medreiga, was killed by a cart full of hay that fell upon him. About thirty days after his death, four persons died suddenly, with all the symptoms usually attending those who are killed by vampires. It was then remembered that this Arnold Paul had frequently told a story of his having been tormented by a Turkish vampire, in the neighbourhood of Cassova, upon the borders of Turkish Servia (for the notion is that those who have been passive vampires in their life-time become active ones after death ; or, in other words, that those who have had their blood sucked become stickers in their turn) but that he had been cured by eating some of the earth upon the vampire's grave, and by rubbing himself with his blood. This pre- caution, however, did not hinder him from being guilty himself after his death ; for, upon digging up his corpse forty days after his burial, he was found to have all the marks of an arch-vampire. His body was fresh and ruddy, his hair, beard, and nails were grown, and his veins were full of fluid blood, which ran from all parts of his body upon the shroud that he was buried in. The hadnagy, or bailiff of the village, who was present at the digging up of the corpse, and was very expert in the whole business of vampirism, ordered a sharp stake to be drove quite through the body of the deceased, and to let it pass through his heart, which was attended with a hideous cry from the
carcass, as if it had been alive. This ceremony being performed, they cut off the head, and burnt the body to ashes. After this, they proceeded in the same manner with the four other persons that died of vampirism, lest they also should be troublesome. But all these executions could not hinder this dreadful prodigy from appearing again last year, at the distance of five years from its first breaking out. In the space of three months, seventeen persons of different ages and sexes died of vampirism, some without any previous illness, and others after languishing two or three days. Among others,- it was said, that a girl, named Stanoska, daughter of the Heyduke Jotuitzo, went to bed in perfect health, but awoke in the middle of the night, trembling, and crying out that the son of the Hey- duke Millo, who died about nine weeks before, had almost strangled her while she was asleep. From that time she fell into a languishing state, and died at three days' end. Her evidence against Millo's son was looked upon as a proof of his being a vampire, and, upon digging up his body, he was found to be such.
"At a consultation of the principal inhabitants of the place, attended by physicians and chirurgeons, it was considered how it was possible that the plague of vam- pirism should break out afresh, after the precautions that had been taken some years before : and, at last, it. was found out that the original offender, Arnold Paul, had not only destroyed the four persons mentioned above, but had killed several beasts, which the late vampires, and particu- larly the son of Millo, had fed upon. Upon this foundation a resolution was taken to dig up all the persons that had died within a certain time. Out of forty were found seventeen, with all the evident tokens of vampirism ; and they had all stakes drove through their hearts, their heads cut off, their bodies burnt, and their ashes thrown into the river.
" All these several enquiries and executions were carried on with all the forms of law, and attested by several officers who were in garrison in that country, by the chirurgeon- majors of the regiments, and by the principal inhabitants of the place. The original papers were all sent, in January last, to the Imperial council of war at Vienna, which had issued out a commission to several officers, to enquire into the truth of the fact."
Methods of Extirpation. — The commonest methods of the extirpation of vampires are — (a) beheading the suspected corpse ; (b) taking out the heart ; (c) impaling the corpse with a white-thorn stake (in Russia an aspen), and (d) burning it. Sometimes more than one or all of these precautions is taken. Instances are on record where the graves of as many as thirty or forty persons have been disturbed during the course of an epidemic of vampirism and their occupants impaled or beheaded. Persons who dread the visits or attacks of a vampire sleep with a wreath made of garlic round the neck, as that esculent is supposed to be especially obnoxious to the vampire. When impaled the vampire is usually said to emit a dreadful cry, but it has been pointed out that the gas from the intestines may be forced through the throat by the entry of the stake into the body, and that this may account for the sound. The method of discovering a vampire's grave in Serbia is to place a virgin boy upon a coal-black stallion which has never served a mare and marking the spot where he will not pass. An officer quartered in Wallachia wrote to Calmet as follows, giving him an instance of this method : —
" At the time when we were quartered at Temeswar in Wallachia, there died of this disorder two dragoons of the company in which I was cornet, and several more who had it would have died also, if the corporal of the company had not put a stop to it, by applying a remedy commonly made use of in that country. It is of a very singular kind.
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and, though infallibly to be depended on, I have never met with it in any Dispensatory.
" They pick out a boy, whom they judge to be too young to have lost his maidenhead, and mount him bare upon a coal-black stone-horse, which has never leaped a mare. This virgin-pair is led about the church-yard, and across all the graves, and wherever the animal stops, and refuses to go on, in spite of all the whipping they can give him, they conclude they have discovered a vampire. Upon opening the grave, they find a carcass as fleshy and fair as if the person were only in a slumber. The next step is to cut off his head with a spade, and there issues from the wound such a quantity of fresh and florid blood, that one would swear they had cut the throat of a man in full health and ' vigour. They then fill up the pit, and it may be depended on that the disorder will cease, and that all who were ill of it will gradually get strength, like people that recover " slowly after a long illness. Accordingly this happened to our troopers, who were attacked with the distemper. I was at that time commanding officer of the troop, the captain and lieutenant being absent, and was extremely angry at the corporal for having made this experiment without me. It was with great difficulty that I prevailed with myself not to reward him with a good cudgel, a thing of which the officers of the emperor's service are usually very liberal. I would not, for the world, have been absent upon this occasion, but there was now no remedy." A Bulgarian belief is that a wizard or sorcerer may entrap a vampire by placing in a bottle some food for which the vampire has a partiality, and on his entry in the shape of fluff or straw, sealing up the flask and throwing it into the fire.
Scientific Theories of Vampirism. — The English custom of piercing suicide's bodies with a stake would appear to be a survival of the belief in vampirism. Such demons are also to be seen in the Polynesian tii, the Malayan hantu penyardin, a dog-headed water-demon, and the kephn of the Karens, which under the form of a wizard's head and stomach devours human souls. Tylor considers vampires to be " causes conceived in spiritual form to account for specific facts of wasting disease." Afanasief regards them as thunder-gods and spirits of the storm who during winter slumber in their cloud-coffins to rise again in spring and draw moisture from the clouds. But this theory will scarcely recommend itself to anyone with even a slight knowledge'of mythological science. Calmet's difficulty in believing in vampires was that he could not understand how a spirit could leave its grave and return thence with pon- derable matter in the form of blood, leaving no traces showing that the surface of the earth above the grave had been stirred. But this view might be combated by the theory of the precipitation of matter.
Literature. — De Schertz, Magia Posthuma, Olmutz, 1706 ; Calmet, A Dissertation on Apparitions (Eng. trans.), 1759 ; Ennemoser, History of Magic ; Herenberg, Philosophical et Christiana Cogitationes de Vampires, 1733 ; Mercure Galant, 1693 and 1694 ; Ranfft, De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumults, Leipsic, 1728 ; Rehrius, De Masticatione Mortuorum, 1679 ; Herz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart, 1862 ; Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, 1872, Russian Folk Tales, 1873 ; Mannhardt, Ueber Vampirismus, in Vol.