CHAPTER I

HEURGY, or the Telestic Work, was the very
essence of the teaching of the Mystery Schools of Egypt, of Samothrace and of Eleusis ; of Zoroaster, of Mithra and of Orpheus. And in Egypt, the cradle of them all, were initiated many of the outstanding men of their day, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Demokritos, Eudoxus, Archimedes, Chrysippos, Euripides, Proklos, Thales and many others.
In addition many of the Fathers of the Church, such as Clement of Alexandria, Cyrillus and Synesius, were also initiated into the Mysteries and regarded them as sacred and efficacious, transferring in part the very language, rites and disciplines of them to their own forms of worship, as is even to-day apparent.
Proklos tells us that ‘‘ The Perfective Rite leads the way as the muesis or mystic initiation, and after that is the epopteia or beholding.”
Plato calls Zoroastrian Magic “* The Service of the
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Gods,” and Psellus affirms that ‘‘ Its function is to initiate or perfect the human soul by the power of materials here on earth, for the supreme faculty of the soul cannot by its own guidance aspire to the sublimest intuitions, and to the comprehension of Divinity.”
Clement of Alexandria alludes to the Mysteries as Blessed and says: ‘‘ O Mysteries truly Sacred ! O pure light ! At the light of the torches the veil that covers Deity and Heaven falls off. I am Holy now that ] am initiated.” While Synesius, speaking in alchemical terms, declares that “the Quintessence is no other than our viscous, celestial and glorious soul, drawn from its minera by our magistery.”’
Nor are the later students and masters of the art less well known, for included among their number were such men as Appollonius of ‘Tyana, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, Arnold de Villa Nova, Picus di Mirandola, Trithemius, Boehme, Cornelius Agrippa and many others. |
But to leave the historical aspect, which, however interesting, is relatively unimportant, and to come to our subject, Theurgy is inextricably associated with Religion ; is, in fact, its very kernel ; for on investiga- tion we find that beneath the exoteric and allegorical forms of all ancient doctrines, and hidden carefully within all their sacred writings, there is an underlying principle which is in every case the same, but is yet
invariably concealed in one way or another. 10
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This central teaching deals with rebirth, or birth from above, and, if we are to believe the records of antiquity, there is, and always has been, a definite body of scientific teaching on this subject, the knowledge of which, though jealously guarded, was never denied to the genuine and earnest seeker.
Unfortunately the mental and spiritual limitations of the vast bulk of mankind throughout the ages have always prevented the public teaching of this science, and necessitated the maintenance of the strictest secrecy, the knowledge being invariably given in the involved, complicated and envious language of symbol and allegory.
This is, of course, a constant source of annoyance to many people to-day, who declare themselves as being opposed on principle to what they term “ artificial secrecy’ in any shape or form; and to an even larger number, who, being without any particular principles, are decidedly averse from undertaking the necessary labour, but desire a clear exposition in “‘ popular” form.
As Mrs. Atwood, in her Suggestive Enquiry, very succinctly puts it: “‘ No such alluring baits to idleness are to be found on the title pages of the middle age school of philosophy; no such simplifications of science as we now hear of are belonging to Alchemy. It is true, there are Revelations, Open Entrances, New Lights and True Lights, Sunshine and Moonshine, with other Auroras and pictured Dawns; Manuals,
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Introductory Lexicons of obscure terms, with meanings no less obscured ; Triumphal Chariots also, Banners, Gates, Keys and Guides, too, without number, all directing on the same Royal Road when this is found ; but useless to most wayfarers; nothing that we observe at all suited to the means or taste of the millionaire class of readers, whose understanding, like that of pampered children, has grown flaccid ; and by excess of object-teaching, has forgotten how to think.”
As for the complaint of the others, it is difficult to understand what is meant by “ artificial secrecy ’’ unless it means making a secret out of nothing, or pretending to have some secret information, when in point of fact one has none—a charge which has for long been unjustly laid against the Alchemists. If this be the meaning of the phrase we cannot but be heartily in agreement with it, but if it means the deliberate with- holding of certain knowledge from the masses, then it entirely depends on the reasons that can be given for the secrecy as to whether the term “artificial” is justifiable.
Now if the object of Theurgy and Spiritual Alchemy be solely the purification and exaltation of the Soul, it may be argued that such knowledge ought to be broad- casted and not obscured ; that it is obviously for the good of mankind, and that to conceal it is virtually criminal.
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But it must be remembered that what is proposed is a method of accelerated Soul development by a system of intensive culture, as is in many places asserted ; and it would appear that there is every reason why those who were in possession of the requisite knowledge were chary of passing it on. And these reasons, when we examine them, must apply equally forcibly to-day for those, if such there be, who are the guardians of the secret.
For the practice of this art opens up very dangerous possibilities, involving, as it is said to do, an understanding of the working and application of certain arcane forces of nature, commonly called magic.
Now magic is a purely relative term, the magic of antiquity, or some of it, being the common knowledge of to-day. But knowledge is power, and power can always be used in two ways, for good or for evil. We have only to look around us to see the appalling results of an unwise dissemination of knowledge, seeing that man is almost invariably tempted, and almost as in- variably succumbs to the temptation to use his know- ledge for purely personal and material ends, and very often for destruction. For which reason it may well be submitted that there is at least an excellent prima facie case for secrecy.
This at any rate was the conviction of the Alchemists, as witness that saying of Raymund Lully, ‘“ I swear to 13
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thee upon my soul that thou art damned if thou shouldst reveal these things. For every good thing proceeds from God and to Him only is due. Where- fore thou shalt reserve and keep secret that which God only should reveal, and thou shalt afhrm thou dost justly keep back those things whose revelation is to His honour. For if thou shouldst reveal that in a few words which God hath been forming a long time, thou shouldst be condemned in the great day of judgement as a traitor to the majesty of God, neither should thy treason be forgiven thee. For the revelation of such things belongs to God and not to man.”
Justified or not, however, the secrecy exists, and it may well be asked where clues may best be sought, which may be followed in the search for this jealously guarded wisdom.
The answer would appear to be that such clues are to be found almost anywhere in the religious, philo- sophical and mystical writings of either the East or the West, but that it will probably come more easily to the majority of Westerners to take the Egyptian, Semitic and Greek and not the Eastern systems. For this reason, therefore, a study of certain books of the Bible, notably the Pentateuch, Solomon, Job, Ezekiel, the Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul and the Revelation of St. John, will be found profitable, especially if the student be aided by some knowledge of the Qabalah, which is the great key to their understanding. Among the un- 14
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canonical books Enoch and Wisdom are helpful, and apart from these Semitic writings, the so-called Egyptian Book of the Dead, the works of many of the Greek Philosophers, the Gnostic and Hermetic frag- ments, expositions of the Mysteries, especially Iam- blichos, and almost all the Alchemical writers, are full of illumination. |
Of the three sources mentioned above, Egyptian, Semitic and Greek, the first is unquestionably the most ancient, but Egypt has left but few traces for us. The Jews derived their knowledge primarily from her through Moses, whatever they may have adopted subsequently from Chaldean, Babylonian and other sources, while even the Greeks obtained much of their inspiration and actual knowledge from her Mystery Schools.
Thus, therefore, is it that the Qabalah, the Jewish Mystical tradition, which was handed on orally for centuries, and was not written down till some as yet undetermined date in our era, forms one of the prin- cipal keys, not merely to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but to all the other sources we have mentioned ; for the language of symbol and allegory is an universal language, and the student will observe for himself that many of the Alchemical writers were avowed Qabalists.
As, however, the Qabalah is a highly technical subject, and as it is proposed to avoid technicalities as
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far as may be, direct allusions to it will be as few as possible in the pages which follow. |
With all the mass of clues which surround us every- where when we begin seriously to look for them, it is difficult to know where to make a start, for to review them all would take volumes. Still, as the science of the ancients was a causal science and reasoned from universals to particulars, it will be best to pick on some symbol of the Universe, and then to seek its counter-