CHAPTER IX

BLACK MAGIC IN ATLANTIS An Episode
ALCYONE is lying half asleep, half awake, on a grassy bank sloping down to a rippling brooklet. His face is perplexed, even anxious, the reflex of his troubled mind. He is the son of a wealthy and powerful family, belonging to the priesthood, the c Priesthood of the Midnight Sun,5 vowed to the service of the Gods of the Nether World, whom the priests sought in the gloom of night, in dark earth-caverns opening into passages that led down, down, into unknown depths.
At this time, the great civilised nations of Atlantis had drawn into two opposed camps : the one, looking to the ancient City of the Golden Gates as their sacred metropolis, maintained the traditional worship of their race, the worship of the Sun — the Sun in the beauty of his rising, clad in the bright colours of the dawning, encircled with the radiant youths and maidens of his court ; the Sun in the zenith of his glory, the blazing strength of his mid-heaven, scattering abroad his brilliant rays of life and heat ; the Sun in the splendid couch of his setting, touching into rarest softest
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hues the clouds he left as promise of his return. The people worshipped him with choral dances, with incense and with flowers, with joyous songs, and with offerings of gold and gems, with laughter and with minstrelsy, with joyous games and sports. Over these children of the Blazing Sun the White Emperor bore rule, and his race had for long millennia held unchallenged sway. But gradually the outlying kingdoms, ruled by his lieutenants, had become independent, and they were beginning to join together into a Federation, rallying round a man who had appeared among them, a remarkable but sinister figure.
This man, Oduarpa by name, ambitious and crafty by nature, had realised that, in order to
give stability to the Federation and to make head against the White Emperor, it was necessary to
call to his aid the resources of the darker magic, to make compact with the denizens of the Nether World, and to establish a worship which would attract the people by its sensuous pleasures, and by the weird unholy powers it placed within the reach of its adepts. He had himself, by such
compact, extended his life over an abnormal period, and, when going into battle, rendered himself
impervious to spear or sword-thrust by materialising a metallic coating over his body, which turned weapons aside as would a shirt of mail. He aimed at supreme power, and was in a fair way to reach it, and he dreamed of himself as sitting crowned in the Palace of the City of the Golden Gates.
The father of our youth was among the most intimate of his friends, and privy to his most secret
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designs, and both hoped that the lad would devote himself to the forwarding of their ambitions. But the youth had dreams and hopes of his own, nourished silently within his own heart ; he had seen in the visions of the night the stately figure of Mars, a general of the White Emperor, Corona, had gazed into his deep compelling eyes, had heard, as from afar, his words : “ Alcyone, thou art mine, of my people, and surely thou shalt come to me, and know thyself as mine. Pledge not thyself to mine enemies, thou who art mine.” And he had vowed himself his subject, as vassal to his lord.
Of this was Alcyone thinking, as he lay musing by the stream. For another influence was playing upon him, and his blood ran hotly in his veins. Ill-pleased at his indifference to their worship — nay, at his shrinking from it, even in its outward rites of animal sacrifice and poured out oblations of strong drink — his father and Oduarpa had conceived the plan of drawing him into the secret mysteries by the allurements of a maiden, Cygnus, dark and beauteous as the midnight sky star-studded, who loved him deeply, but had so far failed to win his young heart with her charms. Between her dusky brilliant eyes and his half-fascinated gaze would float the splendid face of his vision, and he would hear again the thrilling whisper : “ Thou art mine.”
At length, however, she had so far won him — persuaded to the task by her mother, a veritable witch-hag, who had told her that thus alone might she gain his love — as to obtain from him a promise that he would accompany her to the underground caves in which the magical rites
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were performed, which drew the denizens of the Nether World from their retreats, and gained from them the forbidden knowledge which changed the human into the animal form, thus giving opportunity for free play to the passions of the brute hidden in man, passions of lust and slaughter. Cygnus had played upon his heart with skill taught by her own passion, and had fanned his indifference into fire, not enduring, indeed, but warm while it lasted. And to-day the passion was hot upon him, and the power of her allurements swayed him. For she had just left him, after coaxing him to promise to meet her after sunset near the caverns where the mysteries were performed, and he was struggling between his longing to follow her, and his repulsion from the guessed-at scenes in which he would be expected to take part. The sun sank below the horizon and the sky darkened while still Alcyone lay musing ; with a shudder he started to his feet, but now his mind was made up, and he turned his steps towards the rendezvous.
To his surprise a considerable company was gathered at the spot ; his father was there with his priestly friends, and Cygnus with a crescent moon on her head, the sign of the bride, and a band of maidens round her, all clad in gauzy star- spangled raiment, through which the brown lithe limbs gleamed duskily; a band of youths of his own age, among whom he recognised his nearest friends, were also waiting, with spotted skins of animals for raiment, and light cymbals which they clashed as they danced round him like fauns.
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“ Hail, Alcyone ! 55 they cried, “ favourite of the Dark Sun, child of the Night ! See where thy Moon and her Stars await thee. But first thou must win her from us, her defenders.”
Suddenly she was whirled away in the midst of the dancers, and vanished in the darkness of the cavern yawning wide in front, and Alcyone was seized, stripped of his garments, a skin like that of the rest thrown over him, and intoxicated, maddened, he fled in her pursuit, amid laughter and cheers : “ Hey ! young hunter, be swift, lest
the hounds pull down thy deer ! 55
After a few minutes Alcyone, with the shout¬ ing crowd at his heels, had raced through the outer caverns, and had reached a vast hall, blazing with crimson light. In the midst rose a huge canopy, red in colour and studded with great carbuncles, that tossed back the light like splashes of fiery blood ; beneath the canopy was a copper throne, inlaid with gold, and before it a yawning gulf, out of which flashed tongues of flame, lurid and roaring. Heavy clouds of strange incense filled the air, intoxicating, maddening.
The rush swept him onwards, and he was caught up into a wild tumultuous whirl of dancers, who shouted, yelled, sprang into the air in wild bounds, circling round the canopied throne, and crying : “ Oduarpa ! Oduarpa ! Come, we are craving for thee ! ”
A low roll of thunder crept muttering round the cavern, growing louder and louder, and ending in a tremendous clap just overhead ; the flames leapt up, and amid them rose the mighty form
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of Oduarpa, steel-grey in his magic sheathing, stern, majestic, with his face grave, even sad, as that of a fallen Archangel, but strong with unbending pride and iron resolution. He took his seat on the throne, where he sat throughout all that followed, silent and sombre, taking no part in the riot ; he waved his hand, and the mad orgy recommenced, the wildest dancers bathing in the flames which lap¬ ped over the edges of the gulf and tossed themselves high in air. Alcyone had caught sight of Cygnus in the midst of the youths and the girls, and he raced, mad with excitement, in her direction ; she eluded him, her escort baffled him, he touched her only to see her whirled out of his reach. At last, panting, wild, he made a desperate rush, and the escort fled with screams of laughter, each youth with a girl, and he leapt on Cygnus and clasped her in his arms.
Wilder and wilder grew the revel ; slaves bearing huge pitchers of strong drink appeared, accompanied by others with goblets. Madness of drink was added to madness of motion, and the lurid lights sank low into twilight of redness. The orgy which followed is better hidden than described.
But see ! out of the passage whence had emerg¬ ed Oduarpa, comes a wild procession ; hairy bipeds, long-armed and claw-footed, with animals5 heads and manes streaming over shoulders, horrent, appal¬ ling, non-human, yet horribly human. They hold in their claw-like hands phials and boxes, and as they mingle with the wildest dancers they give these to the revellers most mad with drink and lust. These smear over their limbs the ointment in
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the boxes, drink the contents of the phials, and lo ! they drop senseless, huddled on the ground, but from each huddled heap there springs an animal form, snarling, ravening, and vanishes from the cavern into the darkness of the outside night.
The bright Gods help the wayfarers who meet these bedevilled astral materialisations, fierce and conscienceless as animals, cruel and crafty as men ! But the bright Gods are sleeping, and only the hosts of the Midnight Sun, ghosts, goblins and all evil things, are abroad. The creatures return, their jaws dripping with blood, their hides draggled with filth, ere morning dawns, and, crouching on the huddled forms on the floor of the cavern, sink into them and disappear.
Such orgies as these were held from time to time, Oduarpa using them to increase his hold up¬ on the people, and he established similar rites at many places, making himself the central figure in all, becoming a veritable object of worship, and gradually welding the people together in allegiance to himself, until he became the acknowledged Emperor. His relations with the inhabitants of the Nether World — called in latter days, as said above, the £ Kingdom of Pan 5 — gave him much additional power, and he had trusted lieutenants — bound to him by their common knowledge of, and participation in, the ghastly abominations of that realm — ever prompt to carry out his commands.
He finally succeeded in assembling a very large army and began his march against the White Emperor, directing his course towards the City of the Golden Gates. He hoped to overawe and conquer,
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not only by fair assault of arms, but by the terror that would be spread by his hellish allies, and the ghastly transformations of the black wizards into animal forms. He himself had a body-guard of magic animals round him, powerful desire- forms materialised into physical bodies, who guarded him and devoured any who approached him with hostile intent. When a battle was raging, and the issue doubtful, Oduarpa would suddenly loose against his foes his horde of demoniacal allies, who would rush into the fray, tearing with teeth and claws, and spread panic among the startled hosts. When his enemies broke into flight, he would send these swift demons in pursuit, and the troops of wizards would likewise take animal forms, gorging themselves on the bodies of the slain.
Thus he fought his way onwards, northward
ever, till he came near the City of the Golden
Gates, where the last army of the White Emperor
lay embattled. Alcyone had fought as a soldier in
the army, partly under a spell, and yet awake
enough to be sick at heart at his surroundings,
and Cygnus, with other ladies, had accompanied
the camp. The day of the decisive battle
dawned; the imperial army was led by. the White
Emperor himself, Corona, and the right wing of
the army was under the command of his most
trusted general, Mars. During the preceding night,
Alcyone had been visited once more by his early
vision, and had heard the well-loved voice :
thou art fighting against thy true lord, and to-morrow
wilt thou meet me, face to face. Break thou then 18
130 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
thy rebel sword and yield thee to me ; thou shalt die by my side, and it shall yet be well.”
And so indeed it happed. For in the fierce shock of battle, as the imperial troops were giving way, the Emperor slain, Alcyone saw, struggling gallantly against overwhelming odds, the face of
his vision, the general Mars. With a cry he
sprang forward, breaking his sword in two, and catching up a spear, he threw himself at Mars’ back, fiercely thrusting through a soldier who struck at Mars from behind. At that moment Oduarpa charged up, mad with fury, and struck Mars down, and with a cry that rang across the field, he summoned Cygnus, by swift spell changing her into a fierce animal, which rushed with bared fangs
at Alcyone, fainting from loss of blood. But in the
very act, the love which had been her life cried out from Cygnus’ soul and wrought her rescue ; for its strong flow changed into loving woman the form of ravening hate, and with a dying kiss on Alcyone’s dying face she breathed away her life.
Herakles, the wife of Mars, was captured by Oduarpa in the assault on the City of the Golden Gates that followed and completed his victory ; she indignantly repulsed his advances, and catching up a dagger stabbed at him with all her strength. The dagger slipped aside on his metallic casing, and, laughing, he struck her down, outraging her as she lay half senseless : when she recovered consciousness, he summoned his horrible animals, and they tore her into pieces and devoured her.
Oduarpa, enthroned on a pile of corpses, and surrounded by his animal and half-animal guards, was
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crowned Emperor of the City of the Golden Gates, assuming the desecrated title of £ Divine Ruler 5 . But his triumph was not of long duration, for Vaivasvata Manu marched against him with a great army, and His mere presence put to flight the denizens of the Kingdom of Pan, while He destroyed the artificial thought-forms, created by black magic. A crushing victory scattered the army of the Emperor, and he himself was shut up in a tower whither he had fled in the rout. The building was fired, and he perished miserably, literally boiled to death within his materialised metallic shell.
Vaivasvata Manu purified the City and re¬ established there the rule of the White Emperor, consecrating to that office a trusted servant of the Hierarchy. For a time things went on well, but slowly the evil again gathered power, and the south¬ ern centre once more grew strong ; until, at last, the same Lord of the Dark Face, appearing in a new re-incarnation, again fought against the White Emperor of the time, and set up his own throne against him. Then the words of doom were spoken by the Head of the Hierarchy, and, as the Occult Commentary tells us: the “Great King of the Dazz¬ ling Face ” — the White Emperor — sent to his brother Chiefs: “Prepare. Arise, ye men of the Good Law, and cross the land while yet dry.” The “ Rod of the Four” — the Kumaras — was raised. “The hour has struck, the black night is ready.” The “ servants of the Great Four ” warned their people, and many escaped. “ Their Kings reached them in their Vimanas 1 and led them on to the lands of 1 Chariots which moved in the air — the ancient aeroplanes.
132 MAN: WHENCE, HOW AND WHITHER
fire and metal [east and north].”1 Explosions of gas, floods and earthquakes destroyed Ruta and Daitya, the huge islands of Atlantis, left from the catastrophe of 200,000 B. C., and only the island of Poseidonis remained, the last remnant of the once huge con¬ tinent of the Atlantic. These islands perished in 75,025 B. C., Poseidonis enduring to 9,564 B. C. when it also was whelmed beneath the ocean.
1 The Secret Doctrine, ii, pp. 445, 446.