Theosophical History

A Quarterly Journal of Research

Volume VIII, No. 2 April 2000 ISSN 0951-497X THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY A Quarterly Journal of Research Founded by Leslie Price, 1985 Volume VIII, No. 2 April 2000

EDITOR but a few examples) that have had an infl uence on or displayed an James A. Santucci California State University, Fullerton affi nity to modern Theosophy. The subscription rate for residents in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is ASSOCIATE EDITORS $21.00 (one year) or $38.00 (two years). California residents, please add Robert Boyd $1.62 (7.75%) sales tax onto the $21 rate or $2.94 onto the $38 rate. For residents outside North America, the subscription rate is $25.00 (one year) or †John Cooper $45.00 (two years). Air mail is $35.00 (one year) or $65.00 (two University of Sydney years). Single issues are $6.00. Subscriptions may also be paid in British sterling. All inquiries should be sent to James Santucci, Department of John Patrick Deveney New York, NY Comparative Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.). Periodicals postage paid at Fullerton, California April Hejka-Ekins 92631-9998. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Theosophical History California State University, Stanislaus (c/o James Santucci), Department of Comparative Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868. Jerry Hejka-Ekins The Editors assume no responsibility for the views expressed by Nautilus Books authors in Theosophical History.

Robert Ellwood * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * University of Southern California GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS Antoine Faivre École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris The fi nal copy of all manuscripts must be submitted on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper, double-spaced, and with margins of at least 1 ¼ inches on all sides. Words and Joscelyn Godwin phrases intended for italics output should be in italics in the manuscript. The Colgate University submitter is also encouraged to submit the work as an e-mail attachment or on a Zip disk (not fl oppies) either in the Microsoft Word for Windows or Macintosh Jean-Pierre Laurant formats. You may also submit the document saved in WordPerfect or other École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Windows and Macintosh word-processor formats. We ask, however, that details of the fi le format be included so that we do not have diffi culties opening it. J. Gordon Melton Should there be any undue diffi culty in fulfi lling the above, we encourage you Institute for the Study of American Religion to submit the manuscript regardless. University of California, Santa Barbara Bibliographical entries and citations must be placed in footnote format. The citations must be complete. For books, the publisher’s name and the place and Leslie Price date of the publication are required; for journal articles, the volume, number, and Former Editor, Theosophical History date must be included, should the information be available. There is no limitation on the length of manuscripts. In general, articles Gregory Tillett of 30 pages or less will be published in full; articles in excess of 30 pages University of Western Sydney, Nepean may be published serially. Brief communications, review articles, and book reviews are welcome. They Karen-Claire Voss should be submitted double-spaced. San Jose State University All correspondence, manuscripts, and subscriptions should be sent to:

Theosophical History (ISSN 0951-497X) is published quarterly in January, Dr. James A. Santucci April, July, and October by James A. Santucci (Department of Comparative Department of Comparative Religion Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 California State University, P.O. Box 6868 U.S.A.) The journal consists of eight issues per volume: one volume covering Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.) a period of two years. The journal’s purpose is to publish contributions FAX: 714-693-0142 E-Mail: [email protected] specifi cally related to the modern Theosophical Movement, from the time of TELEPHONE: 714-278-3727 Madame Helena Blavatsky and others who were responsible in establishing Web address: www.theosophicalhistory.org the original Theosophical Society (1875), to all groups that derive their teachings—directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly—from her or her immediate followers. In addition, the journal is also receptive to Copyright ©2000 by James A. Santucci related movements (including pre-Blavatskyite Theosophy, Spiritualism, Composition by Robert Hütwohl, Santa Fe, NM Rosicrucianism, and the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg to give Printed on acid-free paper THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY

Contents April 2000 Volume VIII, Number 2

Editor’s Comments James Santucci ...... 43

Associate Editor’s Comments In the Beginning Leslie Price ...... 47

Communication A Report on the Kalachakra Initiation in Bloomington, Indiana James Burnell Robinson ...... 50

Articles Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy Dan Merkur...... 53

Walter Richard Old: The Man Who Held Helena Blavatsky’s Hand Kim Farnell...... 71

Book Reviews Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica Joscelyn Godwin...... 84 “...Een kern van Broederschap...’: 100 Jaar Theosofi sche Vereniging in Nederland, 1897-1997 Alfred Willis...... 88

On the cover: Walter Old, pre-1914. Published with permission from Kim Farnell and Pastor Christopher Gornold Smith.

Editor’s Comments

In This issue

wo articles appear in this issue that are of it was perhaps the primary reason for its Timportance from different perspectives: existence in the early years according to John P. Kim Farnell’s “Walter Richard Old: The Man Deveney. His work in the T.S. included serving Who Held Helena Blavatsky’s Hand” and as General Secretary of the British Section in Dan Merkur’s “Methodology and the Study of 1890-1891 and receiving, as a member of the Western Spiritual Alchemy.” Inner Group, occult training from Madame The first article recounts the life of one Blavatsky. The title of Miss Farnell’s article is of the most infl uential astrologers of the late reflective of Old’s presence at the death of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Madame Blavatsky in May, 1891. The rest of Walter Richard Old (1864–1929). Known in the story of his involvement in Theosophy astrological circles as Sepharial and from 1895 and in the Society, which eventually ended by as Walter Gornold in private life, his name 1896, was not of crucial importance so far as does appear prominently in Theosophical the history of the T.S. is concerned; it does, circles during Madame Blavatsky’s lifetime. however, reveal some interesting reactions to In fact, Miss Farnell writes that “[a]lthough it signifi cant events at that time, most notably is commonly recorded that he was a friend the Judge affair. No matter what our final of Helena Blavatsky and a member of the assessment is of Old as a Theosophist, any Theosophical Society his involvement goes far addition to our knowledge of late nineteenth beyond that often hinted at.” This involvement century Theosophy is most welcome. was not only intellectual but experiential as Miss Farnell’s paper was fi rst presented at well. In 1886, Old had a “mystical experience” the Theosophical History Conference in 1997, which was later published in Lucifer. The around the time when she was completing article, “My Unremembered Self: The Experi- a book on Walter Old. The book has since ence of An Astral Tramp,” describes his vision come out as The Astral Tramp: A Biography of meeting his own self. The epithet “Astral of Sepharial (Ascella Publications 1998) ISBN Tramp,” given by Blavatsky herself, is an apt 1-898503-88-5. Trained as a journalist and one because of Old’s tendency to roam about a professional astrologer since 1990, Kim her residence in astral form, a significant Farnell has written for numerous astrological ability within the Theosophical Society since periodicals and lectured widely in the U.K.

Theosophical History VIII/2 43 She currently writes sun sign columns for Dr. Merkur, the author of Gnosis: An Esoteric British magazines and teaches astrology for a Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions Japanese school. Her next book, a collection (Albany: SUNY, 1993) and the recently pub- of biographical essays of nineteenth-century lished The Mystery of Manna (Park Street Press, astrologers, will appear on CD next year. 2000), has taught at Syracuse University and Copies of The Astral Tramp may be obtained Auburn Theological Seminary and is currently direct from the author for £9.99, with additional living in Toronto. airmail postage of £3. Miss Farnell may be reached by e-mail at [email protected], by In addition to these articles, James B. fax at 44 171 358 9690 (fax), or by mail (54 Robinson reports on the 1999 Kalachakra Sprules Road Brockely, London SE4 2NN). Initiation held in Bloomington, Indiana. Dr. Robinson captures the significance of the The second paper, Dan Merkur’s “Methodol- Initiation as well as the air of a major happen- ogy and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy,” ing that is becoming increasingly familiar to was fi rst presented at the 1999 Western Esoteri- the Western world yet still retaining the sense cism Consultation Session of the American of a wondrous and unprecedented event for Academy of Religion. According to Dr. Merkur’s the participants. thesis, the view that different alchemical recipes Since this is the fi fteenth year of Theosophi- are to be read simultaneously on the metal- cal History, the original editor, Leslie Price, has lurgical and the mystical levels and that the contributed his account of the origins of the transmutation of base metals into gold was journal and the Theosophical History Centre. isomorphic with an ecstatic process of mystical This is, I believe, the fi rst time that this account transformation, is false. The paper discusses has appeared in print. It clearly establishes the original assumption of isomorphism, includ- the motive that underlies the necessity of ing that of Carl. G. Jung, and then proceeds its existence as an independent and neutral to establish, in agreement with the historian journal. Although Leslie discontinued the John Read, Paracelsus as the initiator of an editorship in 1989, he still continues to take alchemy possessing both chemical and spiritual an active role despite taking on a new project, ingredients. Dr. Merkur then discusses some of the Psychic Pioneer (see below). the assumptions of spiritual alchemy, including The book reviews contained in this issue the use of psychoactive drugs and scrying stones reveal that important publications do not “to experience the spiritual nature of the sublunar appear only in English. Joscelyn Godwin and ethereal realms, respectively.” Furthermore, reports on a most important study (Aleister in the light of the writings of the Welsh alchemist Crowley e la tentazione della politica) on “the Thomas Vaughan (ca. 1621-1665), there is every most controversial esotericist of the twentieth reason to assume that alchemists “also adapted century,” Aleister Crowley, by the Italian scholar the kabbalah’s procedures for incarnating souls Marco Pasi. After reading the review, it is hoped during marital sex.” that this book, based on Dr. Pasi’s philosophy

44 Editor’s Comments thesis at the University of Milan, is translated 2. “Abraham Lincoln and Spiritualism” by into English so it can reach a wider audience. Walter Franklin Prince The second review, ‘. . .Een Kern van 3. “Aksakov” Broederschap. . .’: 100 Jaar Theosofi sche Verenig- 4. “People from the Other World” re- ing in Nederland, 1897-1997 by Ruud Jansen, viewed by Stainton Moses concerns the history of Theosophy in The 5. “Visions,” a forgotten booklet of occult Netherlands. The role of the Dutch in modern experiences by Stainton Moses art (L. M. Lauweriks and P. Mondria(a)n) 6. “The Cathars and Arthur Guirdham” by and its connection to Theosophy make this Lynda Harris an important subject, and this is justifiably emphasized by the reviewer, Alfred Willis. As The publications in print may be ordered with the previous book, an English translation from Leslie Price (15 Clouston Close, Wallington, would certainly be welcome. Surrey SM6 8LX, UK) for £3.50 (US$7.00) for booklet 1 and £2.50 (US$5.00) for booklet 2. * * * The web site should be of interest for anyone interested in this topic. While some The Psychic Pioneer of the site is still under construction, there is available a news page, biography page, A new project was launched in 1999 by Associ- archive page, book page, and more. ate Editor Leslie Price. As described by Mr. We wish Leslie and Tony Hern, the designer Price, the Psychic Pioneer Project (which of the website, every success in their new includes Psychic Pioneer Publications and endeavor. a website, www.psypioneer.com) “intends to make available again a wider range of source * * * material by and about earlier workers in the psychic fi eld, together with new scholarship. As Theosophical History Website of March 2000, two publications have appeared. The first, “Occultism and Spiritualism,” is a The Theosophical History website at review by Stainton Moses originally published www.theosophicalhistory.org is now being under the pseudonym M.A. (Oxon.) in the updated on an almost weekly basis. Plans are Psychological Review (July 1881). The second, to add in the near future additional volumes “The Mystery of Stainton Moses,” by Leslie Price, of the early Theosophical History issues. We was an address presented by the author upon anticipate including I/4 and I/5 by May. Also, the centenary of Moses’ death in 1992. more full text articles will be included as Future publications include at least six well as an update of the Notes and Queries titles: section. 1. “Magical Spiritualism”—An 1878 warn- ing by Andrew Jackson Davis * * *

Theosophical History VIII/2 45 CESNUR Conference

CESNUR’s 14th International Conference will be held in Riga, Latvia from August 29-31, 2000. The conference theme will be “New Religiosity in the 21st Century.” The co-sponsor for the conference is the University of Latvia, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Academic Centre for the Study of Religions.

* * * * *

Note

1Astral Projection or Liberation of the Double and the Work of the Early Theosophical Society (Theosophical History Occasional Papers, vol. VI). Astral projection is also accepted as undisputed fact by Franz Hartmann, who describes some of his own experiences in the upcoming Some Fragments of the Secret History of the Theosophical Society (Theosophical History Occasional Papers, vol. VIII).

446 Editor’s Comments Associate Editor’s Comments

Leslie Price

In the Beginning

n 1979, I was washed up in Blackburn, from a biographer, Jean Overton Fuller, who ILancashire and began to study the mystery was planning to write about Madame Blavatsky of the medium Stainton Moses, whose library and had some questions about their treatment is partly preserved at the College of Psychic of her. On behalf of the SPR I replied, which Studies in London. This brought me via Olcott’s perhaps rather surprised her. Old Diary Leaves to the greater mystery of During 1984, as I began to plan the History Madame Blavatsky. When I returned to London Group, the idea of a journal emerged naturally in May 1980, I went to the Theosophical because it had been done before, in 1975 with Society (Adyar) headquarters, not far from the creation by a group of a quarterly, The where I had moved and began to study the Christian Parapsychologist (CP). I knew that it material. There was also a younger persons was important to preserve the independence group, called the Olcott Centre, to nourish the of the publication. Not only were there three heart as well as the head. competing Theosophical groups on the same Having served on the Society for Psychical subway line in London, but there were varying Research (SPR) Council from 1975 until 1980 parties in each tradition. I was conscious (when a civil war engulfed the Society) and that the recent biography of Leadbeater by even briefl y having served as SPR librarian, I Gregory Tillett was being excluded from was able to draw without diffi culty on their many bookshops, libraries and journals of resources too, and in April 1983 I presented the Adyar Society (though not in England). as a lecture a re-examination of the 1884-85 Historians were not always welcome and at investigation “Madame Blavatsky Unveiled?” times Theosophists were no different from This was published by the Theosophical other groups in making counter productive History Centre in February 1986. In this paper attempts to block scholarship. The lesson has I proposed the establishment of a neutral still not been learnt. In 1990, Paul Johnson Theosophical History Group (p. 32). (who wrote one of the best-selling American These investigations brought me into Blavatsky-related titles of the decade) was contact with a steadily widening circle of refused entry to the T.S. Archives in Adyar. worldwide persons interested in the history of At the same time I was active in the English Theosophy. One day the SPR received a letter Section of the Adyar TS, and wanted a mutually

Theosophical History VIII/2 47 beneficial relationship between Theosophy even recruiting a CP treasurer. She was a keen and History. I found in Dr. Hugh Gray, who student of Alice Bailey and exemplifi ed the warm had recently become general secretary, a ready and unobtrusive service of the Arcane School at response. Early in 1985, the Theosophical its best. On her shelves also were Rudolf Steiner History Centre was approved as part of the and some basic Theosophical works. She was English Section, while the new journal remained never very pro-HPB and yet she made possible independent. It was the THC which sponsored the publication of much that illuminated HPB. the four History Conferences in London in 1986-9 Unknown to me, she had been told that she and published booklets. must assist me by another old lady who was in Neither Theosophical History (TH) nor the the White Eagle Lodge. booklets could happen without many others At that time I was working in the investment playing a part. Printers were crucial. I went department of a wealthy church body, and to the unit which had once printed CP and when I discovered how much Margaret had in they threw themselves enthusiastically into her personal (non-interest) accounts, I turned the project which in those days still involved pale. Rearrangement generated useful income, a lot of typing and pasting. I cannot identify but nevertheless the sums still needed, for them as they were offi cially part of the Roman such publications as the Autobiography of Church structure in London, and the Cardinal Sinnett, were substantial. Margaret was the fi rst and HPB would have not seen eye to eye. You of a number of donors. She made TH possible. may recall though that an early editorial dealt Donors are very important in history—HPB’s with the Jesuits and how they were more open later work in England, for example, was much to historians than Theosophists! dependent on the Keightleys, while Miss “Cherchez la femme” is a principle not Dodge supported some of the principals in always happily deployed in that Church, but the Krishnamurti story. a true understanding of how TH developed One Sunday evening in 1983, I was asked must acknowledge Margaret Brice-Smith, who by Lilian Storey, the TS librarian, to deputise was then in her nineties. The spinster daughter for her in the TS library. Lilian was always of a country parson, denied the university an encouragement in history and had herself education given to her brothers, she had recently unearthed the family background and outlived them all, and broadened beyond real birth date of Leadbeater. (Later as general the Church to include the paranormal and secretary, she gave hospitality to the London the esoteric. But as she emerged free, she history seminars of 1995 and 1997.) A young also became fi rst deaf and could not hear the lady, a student of Douglas Baker, came in to lecturers and then nearly blind. enquire about Paracelsus. She became my Nevertheless, she was a stalwart worker for wife Helen. It is also important to recognise the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and the heavy sacrifi ce made by the partners of Spiritual Studies, opening her fl at for a library, editors. Who will repay to them the evenings donating to the expansion of CP in 1976, and and weekends lost?

48 Associate Editor’s Comments Dozens of others, Theosophists and non- doubtful if the various Theosophical and Theosophists, some in distant lands, also related groups realise how much they owe to helped the project. But the launch did not his independent scrutiny of their history. produce universal approval. I received an At the end of 1989 I was again washed up, irate letter from one lady who thought that this time on the banks of the Thames, where the series of documents we began reprinting I went to work at London’s County Hall. I was from the SPR archives was muckraking to not sure that I had any further contribution to the detriment of HPB—though it is doubtful make to the fi eld. However, unknown to any if she knew the origin of the term. Another living person, less than a mile away, in the reader was upset when we unearthed the India Office Library, there were secret 1879 description of the Martians by Leadbeater reports on Madame Blavatsky, a lady in her (omitted from the revised book version)—he sixties (!) according to a British agent in New was anti-CWL and considered that the seer York. One day, my old friend Tony Hern, who should be left in obscurity. lived down the road from that Library, and A prominent ES lady asked to see me and whose business had lately ended, came to enquired by what authority I was publishing lunch. The President of the Immortals, it turned TH. She offered to look over all articles out, had an unfi nished agenda. before publication. I politely declined. Later, a leading non-ES member who had campaigned * * * * * within the T.S. against it in a constructive way warned me not to print an editorial about its signifi cance in history in case the word went out that we were to be boycotted. It appeared and we were not. Nevertheless, the light we turned on various corners of occult history may well have stirred up dormant energies with wide consequences. It was Ted Davy who alerted me to the work of Dr. James Santucci, who was the author of what became the fi rst THC booklet in 1986 and who was then studying Dr. H.N. Stokes, another editor. When I was no longer able to edit TH in 1989, John Cooper urged Jim to take up the torch, which to my great gratitude he did. Under his leadership, and at his personal and professional cost, TH has further developed international and academic links and has entered the Net age. We are

Theosophical History VIII/2 49 Communication

A Report On The Kalachakra Initiation In Bloomington, Indiana

James Burnell Robinson

he esoteric tradition in Buddhism is repre- subtle drops that are manipulated in advanced Tsented by the Vajrayana or Tantric Bud- Tantric practice. The “alternative” Kalachakra dhism. It is generally thought in Tibet that one utilizes the principles of the external and of the most powerful and effective Tantras is internal Kalachakra to create by visualization the Kalachakra or “Wheel of Time.” According and deity yoga a new macro- and microcosm. to Buddhist tradition, a king of the great As a consequence of the successful completion realm of Shambhala came to the Buddha and of these practices, we are told that one is able requested the Wheel of Time teachings. [Edwin to achieve Buddhahood in this very life. Bernbaum’s book, The Way to Shambhala, The Kalachakra is also unique in that it is probably the best overall view of what has an apocalyptic dimension, predicting the Shambhalla was, is and will be.] The Buddha eventual coming of a world dictatorship. Since then initiated and instructed the king with this event will have an impact on all humanity, some ninety-six of his followers. They returned there arose the custom in Tibet that, in contrast to Shambhala and preached the Kalachakra to to other Tantric initiations which are given in their people, converting them to Buddhism. small groups, the Kalachakra initiation, when The Kalachakra, however, only enters given, would be available to all who sincerely historical consciousness about 960 AD in India, wanted it. though its exponents assert that it originated In 1981, the Dalai Lama came to Madison, in Central Asia, a plausible claim based on Wisconsin, at the invitation of Geshe Lhundup internal evidence in the Kalachakra literature. Sopa and gave the fi rst Kalachakra initiation It was then taken from India to Tibet by the outside of India and Tibet. Some 1200 people great Indian master, Atisha. attended this event for a $75 per person The scope of the Kalachakra system is par- admission fee. This last August, the Dalai Lama ticularly wide. The “external” Kalachakra deals once again gave the Kalachakra ceremony at with the structure of the macrocosm, centering the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, upon time cycles and certain astrological Indiana, at the formal request of his brother, principles. The “internal” Kalachakra deals Thubten Norbu, a retired professor of Tibetan with the microcosm, the psychophysiology Language and Culture at Indiana University. of the human body with its chakras, subtle This time, some four thousand people attended, channels and the red and white “bindus” or each paying $375 to participate.

50 Communications: A Report on the Kalachakra Initiation From the improvised parking lot fi lled with to go to the separate “teaching tent.” Security cars with “Free Tibet” stickers on them, one was extensive, much more in evidence than approached the Tibetan Cultural Center site by in 1981. The volunteers were very polite entering a large meadow with a large pavilion but seemingly always at you for something set up in the middle of it for people to sit, eat or another. They were rather rigid about and converse. To the north and east of the people sitting in their assigned place. It was pavilion on two sides was a Tibetan bazaar an international audience and, if one listened with about twenty-five booths side by side carefully, many different languages were heard. offering all sorts of trinkets, tee-shirts, ritual If one were sensitive to demographics, there implements, objects d’art, etc. Most all of the appeared to be more women than men, a Tibetan Buddhist centers in the United States good many Asians but rather few Blacks. were present. A number of the booths either While the Dalai Lama spoke virtually every represented Tibetan refugee organizations afternoon at the Tibetan Cultural Center, many or promised that the profi ts from their sales collateral activities took place in the evening would go to help the Tibetans in India. in and around Indiana University. For example, Essential to the initiation ceremony is the there was a sequence of lectures by lamas Kalachakra mandala, patiently constructed from representing all the different major schools colored sand by monastic artists. This sand of Tibetan Buddhism. Even a teacher from mandala has been constructed without the the Bon religion, the still vital indigenous accompanying initiation in several museums non-Buddhist religion of Tibet, gave a lecture as an example of Tibetan art. For over a week on a Bon spiritual practice. While Bon has previous to the ceremony in Bloomington, the become very “Buddhafi ed” over the centuries, monks of the Namgyal monastery had been it is signifi cant that the Dalai Lama gave his creating the sand mandala on a large platform blessing to such a presentation. The message near where the Dalai Lama would be seated to sent was very clear—this was to be a celebra- give his teaching. A glass cover was put over tion not only of Buddhism but also of Tibetan it to prevent any stray breeze from disturbing culture as a whole. the fragile creation. On Saturday, 21 August, the Dalai Lama Though this constructed mandala was not began giving basic Buddhist teachings; in accessible to the audience, reproductions of this particular case, he used a text by the the Kalachakra mandala were everywhere Indian Buddhist master, Shantideva. Teaching in evidence. You could get it on a poster, as basic Buddhism is important in this initiatory a painting, as a jigsaw puzzle, a clock-face context because the practice of esoteric (appropriate enough for the Wheel of Time) Tantric Buddhism presupposes the practice and as that most contemporary of all art forms, of the exoteric Buddhism of the sutras. The a computer screen saver. Shantideva text was an interesting choice. It From this meadow where everyone mingled preaches that we must simultaneously cultivate freely, one took a path through a metal detector detachment from ourselves and the people

Theosophical History VIII/2 51 and things around us by contemplating their tion with virtuous intentions and a serious disgusting nature yet at the same time, we attitude toward the discipline will benefit, are to cultivate compassion, albeit a detached even if they are not fully committed to the and equalitarian compassion, for all living Buddhist path. beings. The Vajrayana is the “Diamond Path” and The Monday of 23 August was given over centers on the practice of deity yoga. Within to ritual dances, which are to be performed all of us is the full potential to become enlight- before the actual initiation by nine dancers ened. Buddhahood or the pure divine body is representing the “offering goddesses.” They the culmination of cultivating that potential. moved about the stage in slow steps and arm This yoga allows us to transcend the ordinary and hand gestures to the music of rather shrill condition of consciousness to a temporary horns, cymbals, a deep-toned plucked string view of being a deity—in this case, the deity instrument and an occasional blast of the long Kalachakra, the divine embodiment of the “alpine” horn. Kalachakra Tantra—for the specifi c purpose Tuesday was the day to prepare the students of becoming a Buddha. for the initiation. We have nothing in the During the next two days, we received mainline religion of the modern West that quite the initiation itself—a combination of ritual corresponds to the practice of Tantric initia- and instruction and a series of visualizations tion. Christian baptism and confi rmation are, associated with the Kalachakra mandala. With perhaps, distant cousins of Tantric “empower- over four thousand participants, it was not ments” since they mark entry into new phases practical for the Dalai Lama to give each of us of the religious life. As for the elaborate individual attention. Professor Norbu was the symbolic system that one enters when one central fi gure upon whom various initiatory practices Tantra, Masonic initiation may provide implements were bestowed on behalf of all a rough parallel. The informational content of the rest of us. the initiation has become publicly available On Friday, the last day of the initiation, in a book, The Kalachakra Tantra by Tenzin the audience was permitted to come up and Gyatso (the Dalai Lama) and Jeffrey Hopkins, circumambulate the mandala. At the end of published by Wisdom Publications. this, the carefully made sand diagram was casu- The Dalai Lama instructed us that we ally swept off the platform into a special sack. should practice the Dharma with pure inten- The sack would be taken and dumped in a tions which includes holding to the Buddhist nearby river. It was the fi nal lesson of the initia- doctrine of emptiness (shunyata), cultivating tion, an illustration of the Buddha’s last words: “the mind of enlightenment” (bodhicitta), and “All compounded things are impermanent, practicing altruism. The full effect of the work out your salvation diligently.” initiation is possible, he tells us, only when one resolves to carry out the pure Mahayana * * * * * practice, but anyone who comes to the initia-

52 Communications: A Report on the Kalachakra Initiation Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy

Dan Merkur

n A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic fi cult to understand. “Gibberish” is an adjective IMystery (1850), Mary Anne Atwood suggested formed from the name of Geber, in scorn of that Western alchemists had had spiritual the alchemist’s obscurity. Alchemists made use concerns from late antiquity onward, and of a secret system of language that depended in heavily coded language she discussed a on symbolism, allegory, and misdirection.5 To tradition that she called Paracelsian.1 In her read the texts, one must make one or another subtext, Atwood asserted that spiritual alchemy axiomatic methodological assumption, which consisted of four types of mystical experience. then guides one’s decoding of the literary For comparative purposes the four experiences devices. For historians of chemistry, it suffi ces may be termed mystical death, knowledge of to make sense of whatever passages are coher- the Intellect (nous), out-of-the-body experience, ent when they are interpreted chemically, and and mystical union. Since Atwood published to ignore passages that are not. Students of her book, many writers have subscribed to her spiritual alchemy are confronted by a different general claims about the historical existence of set of problems. We are supposed to make spiritual alchemy. A smaller number of writers sense of passages that are incoherent chemi- have agreed with her subtext in discussing cally, and radically different results emerge spiritual alchemy as an initiatory sequence from the assumptions that different scholars of different mystical experiences. These writ- make. Let us examine several of the more ers included the occultists Arthur Edward popular assumptions. Waite, Rudolf Steiner, and Julius Evola, the analytic psychologist Carl G. Jung, and the Gold-Making historian of religions Mircea Eliade.2 Endorsing a hypothesis is not the same, however, as In 1930 the historian of chemistry F. Sherwood demonstrating an argument. We know that Taylor demonstrated that the alchemists of spiritual alchemy has been an initiatory path Hellenistic Egypt made a copper-lead alloy since Atwood,3 but its existence prior to that was able to pass successfully for gold Atwood remains a hypothesis.4 until the eighteenth century when assaying Uncertainties surround Western spiritual techniques were improved. Due to variations alchemy, among other reasons, because the in the purity of naturally occurring gold, the literature of Western alchemy is notoriously dif- copper-lead alloy sometimes appeared to

Theosophical History VIII/2 53 be better gold than some real gold did. The Alchemists were indeed able to produce a procedure for manufacturing the alloy included metal that their cultures called gold. It was a use of sulfuric acid that was prepared in not what modern science calls gold, but it was a still. The manufacture and use of a still gold by the standards of the alchemists and remained a secret that was known only to their contemporaries. alchemists for nearly a thousand years.6 By “soul” and “spirit” alchemists from late antiquity The Assumption of Isomorphism onward had referred to chemicals in a gaseous state. The alchemical sense of the term “spirits” Writers who are aware that the alchemists was later transferred to distilled alcoholic engaged in chemical procedures sometimes beverages. In neither case were metaphysical make the different methodological assump- phenomena under discussion. tion that alchemical recipes are to be read In Gnosis, I argued that the Hellenistic simultaneously on two levels. One level is recipe for making a copper-lead brass with metallurgical and the other is mystical. The the aid of sulfuric acid was transmitted by methodology assumes that the transmutation the alchemists of medieval Islam to Western of base metals into gold was isomorphic with Europe, where it came to be termed the an ecstatic process of mystical transformation. magnum opus. From Muslim times onward, Titus Burckhardt, an enthusiast for Sufi sm as some alchemists were interested in chemistry well as for alchemy, expressed the hypothesis quite generally; but many of the classical with admirable clarity as follows: texts of European alchemy are concerned exclusively with the one procedure that Alchemy may be called the art of the trans- produced artifi cial gold.7 mutation of the soul . . . alchemists also Modern writers on spiritual alchemy are knew and practised metallurgical procedures such as the purification and alloying of almost invariably ignorant of the chemistry metals; their real work, however, for which all of the magnum opus. Indeed, they frequently these procedures were merely the outward claim that because it is impossible to transmute supports or ‘operational’ symbols, was the base metals into gold, the alchemists possessed transmutation of the soul.8 no recipe for making gold. Were arguments of this sort valid, had the alchemists been Alchemy . . . looks on the play of the powers of the soul from a purely cosmological point ignorant of chemistry, or only coincidentally of view, and treats the soul as a ‘substance’ involved with it, students of spiritual alchemy which has to be purified, dissolved, and would be freed from the obligation to interpret crystallized anew.9 chemical recipes as chemical recipes. They would instead be obliged to read the recipes The assumption that chemical and spiritual in some other manner, and a hypothesis such processes were isomorphic traces, so far as as Atwood’s might seem tenable. However, I know, to the analytical psychologist Carl the methodological assumption is incorrect. G. Jung. In his view, Western alchemists

54 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy engaged both in chemical activities and “a Alchemy and Conjuring parallel psychic process”10 that took the form of mystical visions. “While working on his Because Western texts of metallic alchemy chemical experiments the operator had certain are to be read as texts of metallic alchemy psychic experiences of the chemical process.”11 alone, conventional assumptions about the “During the practical work certain events of antiquity of Western spiritual alchemy cannot an hallucinatory or visionary nature were be maintained. A religious philosophy of perceived, which cannot be anything but chemical change has surrounded Western projections of unconscious contents.”12 alchemy from late antiquity onward, and In Gnosis, I examined and revised Jung’s Zosimos of Panopolis was undoubtedly a theory of the historical transmission of visualiza- visionary. Metaphoric use of alchemical terms tion techniques from late antique Gnosticism to was used by Sufis, such as al-Ghazzali, in Western alchemists. Despite my confi rmation reference to unitive mysticism.14 Alchemical that some Western alchemists have known transformations of imaginal substances during and used visualization practices, at least visionary experiences of the World of Imagina- since the Renaissance, Jung’s methodological tion, are found in Sufi sm, but beginning only in assumption is not persuasive. If alchemists the thirteenth century.15 These transformations had visions that were based exclusively on were not, however, the same transformations sense perceptions of chemical processes, the that alchemists induced in metals in the visions might reasonably be expected to have world of the senses. There is no evidence that been isomorphic with the chemical processes. alchemists routinely engaged in mysticism of However, this argument from psychology lacks any kind until the Renaissance. logical necessity. Jung overlooked the fact that Although Waite published a work of spiri- alchemists’ symbolism depended at least in tual alchemy in Atwood’s tradition,16 his part on consciously held doctrines, myths, and writings on the history of alchemy insisted so forth, that had been taken over from other that the secrets of the historical alchemists had religious concerns. Eliade argued, for example, been chemical rather than mystical.17 Waite that the Hellenistic alchemists applied ideas of attributed the origin of spiritual alchemy to “the passion, death and resurrection of a God” “Henry Khunrath and the anonymous author that they had borrowed from the Mysteries and of the treatise concerning Mary of Alexandria, “projected on to matter in order to transmute with a few Rosicrucian philosophers” in the it.”13 When alchemists projected death and late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.18 rebirth onto metals, their fantasies refl ected Reviewing Waite’s Lives of the Alchemystical Mystery doctrines rather than anything intrinsic Philosophers, the historian of chemistry Erik to metallurgical processes. Isomorphism is not Holmyard wrote: “Mr. Waite has, in short, then to be expected of their projections. finally and irretrievably demolished the fantastic thesis set up by Mrs. Atwood and others, and has proved beyond refutation

Theosophical History VIII/2 55 that early and medieval alchemy was almost Agrippa was a Hermetic philosopher and entirely concerned with physics or physic.”19 a magician. His writings scorn alchemy as a John Read, a historian of chemistry, named pretended gold-making and fi nancial deceit.24 Paracelsus (1493-1541) as the originator of a His Hermetic cosmology of four elements form of alchemy that had both chemical and in each of three cosmic zones was adopted, spiritual ingredients.20 Citing the example of however, by Paracelsus, who integrated it Jacob Böhme (1575-1624), Taylor noted that with metallic alchemy. Paracelsus expanded “alchemical terminology was used in purely the traditional alchemical duality of mercury mystical writings as early as the sixteenth and sulfur into a triad of mercury, sulfur, and century.”21 Whichever detail one prefers to salt in order to free sulfur to designate the emphasize, historians of chemistry are agreed imaginal. The ethereal beings that Agrippa that Western spiritual alchemy originated no had considered to be Christian angels were earlier than the Renaissance. designated as elementals by Paracelsus. Neither The immediate precursor to Paracelsus’s angelic nor demonic, elementals mirrored the innovation may be found in the De occulta four elements in the sidereal world. philosophia of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa For both Agrippa and Paracelsus, ethereal von Nettesheim (1486-1535). Agrippa divided phenomena supported a practice of conjuring. the cosmos into three portions: elementary, Agrippa kept close to the angel conjuring celestial, and intellectual. The four elements of the kabbalah. Paracelsus approached the were to be found not only in the elemental practice more philosophically. Although the realm, but also in both “the Angels in Heaven intelligible, imaginal, and material dimensions and the blessed Intelligences.” Forms and of the Hermetic cosmos were thought to mirror virtues originate as divine Ideas, next manifest each other with precision, allowance had to in the Intelligences, then in the Heavens, and be made for certain systematic differences. lastly in the Elements. Human intellect and Imaginal phenomena are often experienced as imagination provide people with access to the anthropopsychic. They know one’s thoughts. Heavens and Intelligences.22 They think, and they communicate. The four A Hermetic validation of the imaginal was material elements were consequently regarded integral to Agrippa’s cosmology. Agrippa broke as reflections of ethereal counterparts that with the traditional ontological dualism of the were personal beings—fire, air, water, and sensible and the intelligible in Christian thought. earth elementals, rather than mere substances. He instead revived the ancient Hermetic triad These beings could then be conjured. of the sensible, imaginal, and intelligible.23 If by Western spiritual alchemy, we mean The ontological divisions were allocated the adjustment of angel conjuring to become spatially in keeping with the Aristotelian a conjuring of the spirits of the four elements, distinction between the sublunar realm of the then Paracelsus was the inventor of spiritual four elements, and the celestial realm of the alchemy.25 Atwood’s hypothesis of an initiatory fi fth element, ether. sequence of mystical experiences postulated

56 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy something quite different. The problem of alchemist,” Eliade wrote, “provides us with defi ning spiritual alchemy is an important one. a point of comparison: he works on mineral Jean D’Espagnet, Thomas Vaughan,26 and other substances in order to ‘cleanse’ and to ‘awaken’ seventeenth century alchemists depended on himself, or, in other words, to enter into Agrippa for their familiarity with Hermetic possession of those divine substances which philosophy; and it is instructive to consider were dormant in his body.”31 their point of view. D’Espagnet’s Enchyridion Let us examine Eliade’s proposal in perspec- Physicae Restitutae (1608) is often regarded as a tive of the chemistry involved. In the eighth or primary document of Western spiritual alchemy. ninth century, the Arabic alchemist who wrote In my opinion it is a masterful synthesis of under the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan proposed Hermetic philosophy with metallic alchemy.27 that all things were composed of sulfur and D’Espagnet’s Arcanum28 is a typically coded mercury. Between the tenth and thirteenth presentation of the metallic opus. I have not centuries, Hindu alchemists took up Jabir’s detected any mysticism in either text. D’Espagnet theory, worked with mercury and sulfur, and co- designated angels specifi cally as “Intelligible ordinated their processes with the metaphysical natures,”29 thereby excluding them from discus- goal of yoga.32 In rasayana, an Indian alchemist sion as ethereal phenomena that might be repeatedly dissolves sulfur in mercury in order to conjured. The modern term “spiritual alchemy” saturate the mercury with sulfur. The result is a fails to refl ect the important differences between solid spherical ball or pill that is mercury-colored the Hermetic conjuring of Paracelsus and the and dull on the outside but somewhat granular Hermetic philosophy of D’Espagnet. D’Espagnet when cut or broken open. After having made was a chemist who embraced Hermeticism; the pill, the alchemist places it in a cut that he but I can find no conjuring, no initiatory makes in his soft palate and he engages in a ecstasies, nor any other use of alternate states hydraulic—not meditative—yogic practice of of consciousness in his writings. raising his semen through his spinal column into his skull. In the process, the seed is refi ned to Eliade’s Model become nectar. The pill is believed to catalyze the regression of semen into nectar.33 Mercury is Yet another hypothesis of the relation between regarded as the seed of Siva,34 and arresting the Western metallic and spiritual alchemies fl uidity of mercury is an instance in the context was offered by Eliade, who interpolated of metals of liberation from the divine play of a Hindu model. He suggested that “the West- cosmic illusion.35 Raising semen to the skull by ern alchemist, in his laboratory, like his means of the seals and locks of hatha yoga is a Indian or Chinese colleague, worked upon corresponding phenomenon in the human body. himself—upon his psycho-physiological life Rasayana does not involve mystic states of any as well as on his moral and spiritual experi- kind, and Eliade did not suggest that it does. ence.”30 Eliade’s suggestion was premised on To what in Western alchemy might rasa- a methodological assumption. “The Indian yana be compared? Because gold-making

Theosophical History VIII/2 57 remained paradigmatic in Europe, little more How the chemical processes of Western than symbolic use was made of Jabir’s sulfur- metallic alchemy are to be related to Western mercury theory. In the thirteenth century, spiritual alchemy remains an open question. Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas referred Eliade’s interpolation of a Hindu model does to natural mercury and sulfur; but the Latin not solve the puzzle. Medicinal cure-alls cannot Geber used the terms to refer to elementary be made to account for an initiatory sequence principles, not common metals.36 In the of different types of mystical experience. Like sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European Atwood’s presentation, Eliade’s account of alchemists regularly distinguished common an initiatory path depended on a systematic mercury and common sulfur from “our Mer- misinterpretation of alchemical references to cury” and “our Sulfur.” The latter substances the metallic opus. were not the common minerals. As a symbol Once we discard mistaken hypotheses for the metallic opus, Philosophic Mercury about the relation of metallic and spiritual consisted paradigmatically of sulfuric acid or alchemy, the literature of Western spiritual its ingredients. Philosophic Sulfur designated alchemy becomes radically less extensive than the base metals copper and lead. By extension its modern interpreters have assumed. The the terms could refer to any context where vast majority of Western alchemical literature fl uid or gas was being contrasted with solids. concerns chemistry. There was nothing but As elementary principles, Mercury and Sulfur chemistry until Paracelsus, and not much might signify vaporousness and solidity, or spirituality afterward. The literature of metallic form and matter, respectively. Paracelsus’s triad alchemy does not constitute evidence of of mercury, sulfur, and salt shifted terminology spiritual alchemy, and spiritual interpretations yet again. of metallic texts have no place in critical The European equivalent of a Hindu alche- research. mist’s mercury pill was called, among other things, goldwater. It was a beverage into Alchemy and which shavings or dust of alchemical gold Psychoactive Drugs had allegedly been placed. Alcoholic and/or herbal beverages of this sort were marketed to Spiritual alchemy, we have seen, consisted, in the public in the seventeenth and eighteenth D’Espagnet’s case, of a Hermetic philosophy centuries as panaceas, as elixirs of longevity and, in Paracelsus’s, of a Hermetic philosophy and immortality, and so forth. The beverages plus conjuring. Is there any evidence that were historical forerunners of snake oil and would bridge the gap to Atwood’s hypothesis patent medicines, carbonated beverages, of an initiatory sequence of different types of homeopathic remedies, and the like. They mystical experience? were marketed as physical medicines and, Some scholarly literature makes the meth- like Hindu alchemists’ mercury pills, had no odological assumption that alchemists have connection to mysticism. always known about and used psychoactive

58 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy drugs. The assumption may be found, for lode in the Fire to Eternity without being example, in Johannes Fabricius’s study of prejudiced. It hath a Divine Power, Celestiall, alchemy from the psychoanalytic perspective and Invisible, above the rest; and endowes the possessor with Divine Gifts. It affords of Kleinian object relations theory. Fabricius the Apparition of Angells, and gives a power wrote: “Since the Sons of Hermes were the of conversing with them, by Dreams and leading chemists of the Middle Ages, and since Revelations: nor dare any Evill Spirit approach they experimented with all kinds of plants and the Place where it lodgeth. Because it is herbs, it is inconceivable that they should not a Quintessence wherein there is no corrupt- have known or used themselves a number of ible thing; and where the Elements are not corrupt, no Devill can stay or abide. hallucinogenic drugs . . . almost certainly the S. Dunston calls it the Food of Angels, alchemists availed themselves of drugs in their and by others it is termed The Heavenly search for the philosophers’ stone.”37 Viaticum; The Tree of Life . . . . There is a Gift What do we actually know about alchemists’ of Prophesie hid in the Red-Stone.39 knowledge of psychoactive drugs? In my most recent book, The Mystery of Manna, I Ashmole explicitly asserted that the angelical demonstrated that the Hebrew Bible and stone was a psychoactive drug. It can neither selected Jewish and Christian commentators be seen, felt, nor weighed, but only tasted. down through the Middle Ages connected It “affords the Apparition of Angells” and the legend of eating manna, the bread that provides “a power of conversing with them, by descended from heaven, with the occurrence Dreams and Revelations.” The angelical stone of visions of the glory of God. Some of the was called “the Food of Angels”—a traditional biblical commentators associated manna with designation of manna. hearing the voice of God and/or experiences My second witness is the English occultist of mystical death.38 Here I would like to note Francis Barrett, writing in 1801, who asserted two instances of the secret knowledge of that “the true aqua vita” fills the alchemist manna in alchemical literature. with the grace of God and opens his spiritual In the “Prolegomena” to Theatrum Chem- and internal eye. icum Brittanicum (1652), Elias Ashmole An adept, therefore, is one who not only described an “Angelicall Stone” in unmistakably studies to do God’s will upon earth, in psychoactive terms. respect of his moral and religious duties; but who studies, and ardently prays to Lastly, as touching the Angelicall Stone, it is his benevolent Creator to bestow on him so subtill, saith the aforesaid Author, that it wisdom and knowledge from the fulness of can neither be seene, felt, or weighed; but his treasury; and he meditates, day and night, Tasted only. The voyce of Man (which bears how he may attain the true aqua vita—how some proportion to these subtill properties,) he may be fi lled with the grace of God; which, comes short in comparison; Nay the Air when he is made so happy, his spiritual and it selfe is not so penetrable, and yet (Oh internal eye is open to a glorious prospect of mysterious wonder!) A Stone, that will mortal and immortal riches:—he wants not

Theosophical History VIII/2 59 food, raiment, joy, or any other thing—he is Here drinking “divine ambrosial nectar” was fi lled with the celestial spiritual manna—he claimed to cause a kind of drunkenness that enjoys the marrow and fat things of the was characterized by a “strong and spiritualized earth—he treads the wine-press, not of the wrath, but of the mercy of God—he lives to intellectual eye.” the glory of God, and dies saying “Holy, holy, Armed with the knowledge that at least holy Lord of Sabaoth! blessed is thy name, some alchemical writers openly, albeit briefl y, now and for evermore! Amen.”40 discussed the use of psychoactive drugs, we may legitimately inquire whether more cryptic Barrett explicitly identifi ed the alchemical writings may have discussed the same esoterica elixir with “the celestial spiritual manna.” in more secretive manners. It is necessary, His reference to the wrath of God may have however, to exercise considerable caution. pertained to an acute adverse reaction to In Gnosis, I noted that Ashmole described a psychoactive drug use. The death while second stone as psychoactive. pronouncing “Holy, holy, holy” almost certainly alluded to a drug-induced experience of By the Magicall or Prospective Stone it is mystical death. possible to discover any Person in what part Barrett provided further information about of the World soever, although never so secretly his elixir in a later passage. concealed or hid; in Chambers, Closets, or Cavernes of the Earth; for there it makes a strict Inquisition. In a Word, it fairely presents to Therefore, to be an adept, as we have your view even the whole World, wherein to before hinted, is to know thyself, fear God, behold, heare, or see your Desire. Nay more. and love thy neighbour as thyself; and by It enables Man to understand the Language this thou shalt come to the fulfilment of of the Creatures, as the Chirping of Birds, thy desires, O, man; but by no other means Lowing of Beasts, &c. To Convey a Spirit into under the scope of Heaven. an Image, which by observing the Infl uence of When thy soul shall be made drunk by Heavenly Bodies, shall become a true Oracle: the divine ambrosial nectar, then shall And yet this as E. A. assures you, is not any thy understanding be more clear than the wayes Necromanticall, or Devilish; but easy, noontide sun;—then, by thy strong and wonderous easy, Naturall and Honest. spiritualized intellectual eye, shalt thou see into the great treasury of Nature, and thou shalt praise God with thy whole heart;—then In Gnosis, I assumed that the magical stone, wilt thou see the folly of the world; and like the angelical stone, was a psychoactive thou shalt unerringly accomplish thy desire, drug; but I would now emphasize that Ashmole and shalt possess the true Philosophers’ made no reference to tasting, eating, or drinking stone, to the profi t of thy neighbour. I say, it. The magical stone was psychoactive; but thou shalt visibly and sensibly, according rather than a drug, it was likely a crystal that to thy corporal faculties; not imaginary, not was used for scrying. A “transparent stone delusively, but real.41 or crystal,” allegedly used by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly, was given by Arthur Dee

60 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy to Nicholas Culpeper and purchased from circles that Western alchemists engaged in mys- Culpeper’s widow by the astrologer William tical visualizations and unions during sexual Lilly. Ashmole joined Lilly in experiments at coitus, in a manner that closely resembled conjuring; they succeeded in summoning “a Hindu and/or Buddhist tantra.47 Julius Evola female devil lewd and monstrous.”42 Staring at asserted the oral tradition as a fact.48 He a crystal in order to induce a vision had been suggested that Western alchemists’ seven recommended by Paracelsus43 and employed planets and seven distillations correspond by Dee and Kelly in spirit conjuring.44 The poet to a “seven” in the human being. These are John Donne called such a crystal a “specular “transcendental forms of consciousness,” “seven stone/ Through which all things within without points through which the higher powers enter were shown.”45 into the corporeal context whereupon they Ex hypothesi an initiation into Hermetic become vital currents and energies specific cosmology could have been accomplished to man.”49 “In hermetism, the number seven, by using the angelic and magical stones in according to traditional esoteric teaching, sequence. Consider, for example, the satiric and expresses transcendent forms, nonhuman skeptical allegory of Cyrano de Bergerac’s forms of consciousness and energy that stand Les Estats et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil (1657). at the foundation of ‘elemental’ things.”50 Evola The moon, where Bergerac located the Garden suggested that in “the Hindu tradition . . . the of Eden, was a realm of matter, physicality, and centers are called chakras.”51 Evola presumably death; the sun was instead a place of personal intended his tantric model of spiritual alchemy dissolution into an immortal, incorporeal to account for historical references to conjuring. union.46 Bergerac’s itinerary proceeded through He claimed that the “seven doors or seven a Hermetic cosmos. The moon was the high seals” could also be encountered as “seven point of the sublunar realm of the senses; the gods or seven angels.”52 Copernican sun belonged instead to the stellar The rumor of tantra was proposed as an realm of the imaginal. It is possible, at least, academic hypothesis by Karen Voss, who sug- that psychedelic drugs were used to provide an gested that “the tradition of the alchemist and initiation into the spiritual nature of the sublunar the soror mystica was . . . a form of Western realm of the senses, while scrying provided tantra.”53 I would like to lay the rumor to entrée to the imaginal. rest. Mystical sexuality was indeed practiced, I add, however, that my hypothesis of an but it was kabbalistic rather than tantric in initiatory sequence of mystical experiences provenance. remains as unproven as anyone else’s. Recent scholarship has established that kabbalists regarded marital coitus as a magical Alchemical Marriage activity by which a soul descended from God into the uniting sperm and ovum. To facilitate As a fi nal methodological concern, I would like God’s work of creation, both a kabbalist and to address a persistent rumor in modern occult his wife were to meditate on and/or visualize

Theosophical History VIII/2 61 a union of masculine and feminine sefi rot or All the organs of the body are drawn from hypostases.54 Precise details differed from the father and mother, and the Name, may it text to text. Let us examine selected passages be blessed, throws a soul in it, as they said, “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath from Iggeret HaKodesh, “The Epistle of the of life” (Genesis 2:7).58 Holy One,” an unusually clear and accessible presentation of the mystical practice. Iggeret Because kabbalists thought in terms of HaKodesh “is one of the best-known thirteenth- ten hypostases, rather than globally in terms century texts; it was quoted, printed, and of the Divine Presence, they considered the reprinted many times.”55 Its explicit concern process to be somewhat more complicated. was with a practice of mysticism that was to In the kabbalistic view, the origin of a soul be performed during marital sex. occurs through a sexual union that takes place between male and female hypostases, Know that the coitus of a man with his at the time that a man and a woman engage wife . . . is a holy and pure matter when it physically in coitus. is done according to what is proper, in a proper time and with a proper kavvanah Behold the mystery of the Lord of [carnal] [meditation]. And a man should not think knowledge that I disclose to you is the that a proper coitus is ugly and disgusting, mystery of man’s being involved in the God forbid!56 mystery of wisdom [Hokhmah], understand- ing [Tevunah], and knowledge [Da`at]. The human act of procreation corresponded Because the man is the mystery of wisdom to the divine act of creation, because a single [Hokhmah] and the woman is the mystery archetypal principle manifested at both levels of understanding [Tevunah]. And the pure of being. coitus is the mystery of knowledge [Da`at]. And this is the mystery of man and woman in the esoteric kabbalah. And if so, behold, The coitus of man with his wife, when it is sex is a means of great ascension when it is proper, is the mystery of the construction properly practiced, and the mystery greater of the world and its inhabitation. Through than this is the secret of the Cherubim that it, man becomes a partner to the Holy One, used to have coitus one in the other in the blessed be He, in the act of creation. This image of male and female.59 is the mystery of what the sages of blessed memory said, “When a man has coitus with his wife in holiness, the Shekhinah is between The second and third sefi rot, Wisdom and them in the mystery of man and woman.”57 Understanding,60 were considered masculine and feminine respectively. Their “pure coitus In the Talmud, the Shekhinah or Divine . . . in the image of male and female” was Presence was thought to be involved in human here said to produce Da`at, “Knowledge.” sexuality whenever a soul unites with a Da`at is somewhat problematic for modern sperm and ovum, conceiving a child. Iggeret scholarship. It is ordinarily regarded as an HaKodesh affi rmed the rabbinic teaching. unofficial, eleventh sefirah, that is located

62 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy in kabbalistic diagrams immediately below “thought,” was a technical term in the early Wisdom and Understanding, as the product of kabbalah for the first hypostasis; the term their conjugation. In Iggeret HaKodesh, it seems Keter, “Crown,” became normative only later. to be a fourth sefi rah in a system that had only Makhshavah was the unity that generated four sefi rot and which, through Pythagorism, the masculine Hokhmah and feminine Binah; was equivalent to the tenth when the system in their turn, the latter generated the unity expanded to become ten. The production of of Da`at. This passage in Iggeret HaKodesh Da’at through Wisdom and Understanding explained that if, during sex, the manifestations signifi ed the production of All. of Da`at and Makhshavah within the kabbalist’s The reference to sex as “a means of great mind were occupied with Hokhmah and ascension” implies that a kabbalist was able Binah, the union of the sefi rot had the power to ascend to, and so participate within, the to impose imagined forms on the physical copulation of the sefirot. The copulation substance of semen. of the Cherubim, a motif taken from Philo, In support of this extraordinary assertion referred to the copulation of Wisdom with of the power of imagination, Iggeret HaKodesh Understanding. cited a passage from the Babylonian Talmud. I will omit discussion of the details of the kabbalist’s ascension through the lower Our masters alerted us to this in the Gemara, sefi rot, when the system was expanded from Berakhot (20a). Rabbi Yohanan was accus- four to ten, and proceed directly to Iggeret tomed to sit at the gates of the bath. He said, “When the daughters of Israel come up from HaKodesh’s explicit discussion of the function bathing, they look at me and have children as of imagination during sex. handsome as I.” Refl ect on [hitbonen] the great miracle of which this hasid informs us. When Behold, the power gave power in the imagi- the woman returning from her immersion nation [dimayon] of man to give birth to thinks of his beauty and then has coitus with that which is similar to what he imagines her husband, that thought [makhshavah] [medameh], and this matter is in his knowl- which is in her imagination forms the form edge [da`at] also from the side of nature. of the child according to the imagination Now when a man has coitus with his wife, that she imagines. And if so, the imagination if his imagination and thought [makhsha- will be found to be a great cause, along with vah] are engaged with matters of wisdom pondering [hirhur] and thought [makhshavah], [Hokhmah] and understanding [Binah], and to the forming of the child and its attributes good and fi tting attributes [middot], then that [middot], as we have explained.62 imagination, which is in his thought, has the power to form the form in the drop of semen as it will be imagined at the time of Iggeret HaKodesh took for granted that the coitus without doubt.61 because imagination emanates from Thought, thought is necessarily present within it. Accord- Imagination was here explained as a natural ingly, the natural function of imagination function of Da`at, “Knowledge.” Makhshavah, has access to Thought and is able to utilize

Theosophical History VIII/2 63 Thought’s power of formation. The distinction The soul of man consists chiefly of two between hirhur, “pondering, thinking about,” portions, Rua’h and Nephesh—inferior and and makhshavah, “thinking, thought,” indicates superior. The superior is masculine and eternal, the inferior feminine and mortal. In that the latter is to be understood in the sense these two consists our spiritual generation . . of “consciousness.” . interior and secret association of male and Iggeret HaKodesh also remarked that the female, to wit the copulation of male and esoteric power of human imagination that female soul, is appointed for the production of is exercised during coitus can also be used fi tting fruit of Divine Life. And unto this does generally as an all-purpose power. that secret blessing and promised fecundity, that declared faculty and warning refer: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, Know that when the holy hasidim would and subdue it: and have dominion. cause their thought to adhere [madebikim] . . . marriage is a comment on life, a mere to the supernals, everything they thought of hieroglyphic or outward representation of and meditated [mitkavnim] on at that time our inward vital composition. For life is noth- 63 was fulfi lled, whether good or evil. ing else but an union of male and female principles, and he that perfectly knows this Toward the end of the Iggeret HaKodesh, secret knows the mysteries of marriage—both the process of drawing down the formative spiritual and natural—and how he ought to power of Thought is explained as an ascen- use a wife. Matrimony is no ordinary trivial business, but in a moderate sense sacramental. sion of the lowermost sefi rah to union with It is a visible sign of our invisible union to Thought. The thought that is naturally present Christ.65 in the lower world—that is, in the kabbalist’s mind—has the inherent power to cause cos- Vaughan regarded sexual coitus in marriage mogonic Thought to descend as well. Moshe as an “outward representation” or material Idel has traced this “mystico-magical model” manifestation of a “union of male and female of “a cleaving to God and . . . drawing down . principles.” It was also a “visible sign of our . . the divine energy” from Iggeret HaKodesh in invisible union to Christ.” The “copulation of the thirteenth century, through the sixteenth male and female soul,” whose names Vaughan century teachings of Moses Cordovero, into took from the kabbalah, was necessary for the living practice of Hasidism today.64 the conception of progeny, the “fi tting fruit of I would like next to turn attention to Divine Life” that was commanded in Genesis the writings of the Welsh alchemist Thomas 1:28. Vaughan’s regard for marriage as a sacra- Vaughan (ca. 1621-1665), brother of the ment bears comparison with the assertion in metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan. His formula- Iggeret HaKodesh that coitus is holy and pure tions were not self-explanatory, but a reader when conducted within marriage with the conversant with Iggeret HaKodesh should have appropriate meditations. no diffi culty recognizing the close proximity of In another passage, Vaughan presented Vaughan’s meaning. Vaughan wrote: similar materials with different emphases.

64 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy Moses tells us that in the beginning God of his wife would be a particular instance created the heaven and the earth—that is, the of the general circumstance of Nature that Virgin Mercury and the Virgin Sulphur. Now was “done in private between particular males let me advise you not to trouble yourselves with this Mercury unless you have a true and females.” friend to instruct you . . . . In another passage, Vaughan identified There is in every star and in this elemental the masculine and feminine principles with world a certain principle which is “the Bride the kabbalistic sefirot Hokhmah and Binah, of the Sun.” These two in their coition do emit agreeing precisely with Iggeret HaKodesh. semen, which seed is carried in the womb From their union come all human souls. of Nature. But the ejection of it is performed invisibly and in a sacred silence, for this is the conjugal mystery of heaven and earth, their The fi re-spirit of life . . . is an infl uence of the act of generation, a thing done in private Almighty God, and it comes from the Land of between particular males and females; but the Living Ones, namely the Second Person, how much more—think you—between the whom the Kabalists style the Supernatural two universal natures? Know therefore that East. For as the natural light of the sun is it is impossible for you to extract or receive first manifested to us in the East, so the any seed from the sun without this feminine Supernatural Light was first manifested in principle, which is the Wife of the Sun . . . the Second Person, for He is Principium . Know then for certain that the magician’s Alterationis, the Beginning of the Ways of sun and moon are two universal peers, male God, or the First Manifestation of His Father’s and female, a king and queen regents, always Light in the Supernatural Generation. From young and never old. These two are adequate this Land of the Living comes all life or spirit, to the whole world and co-extended through according to that position of the Mekkubalim: the universe. The one is not without the “Every good soul is a new soul coming from the other, God having united them in His work of East”—that is, from vnfj = Chokmah, or the creation in a solemn, sacramental union.66 Second Sephira, which is the Son of God. Now for the better understanding of this Here the principles were described in descent of the soul we must refer ourselves Jabirian terms as “universal natures” and to another placet of the Kabalists, and this is identified with Mercury and Sulphur, male it: “The souls”—say they—“descend from the Third Light to the fourth day, thence to the and female, king and queen. Although “the fi fth, whence they pass out and enter the night Bride of the Sun” was found “in every star of the body.” To understand this maxim you and in this elemental world,” the coition of must know there are three Supreme Lights the two principles was simultaneously “the or Sephiroth, which the Kabalist calls “one conjugal mystery of heaven and earth,” that throne, wherein sits the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord is, a marriage of the lower two realms of the God of Hosts.” This Third Light from whence the souls descend is vbhC = Binah, the last of cosmos. The coitus of the two universal natures the Three Sephiroth, and it signifi es the Holy was necessary for the production of “semen Ghost. Now that you may know in what sense which seed is carried in the womb of Nature.” this descent proceeds from that Blessed Spirit We may infer that an alchemist’s insemination I will somewhat enlarge my discourse, for

Theosophical History VIII/2 65 the Kabalists are very obscure on the point. To make an end: if thou dost know the “To breathe”—say the Jews—“is the property First Matter, know also for certain thou hast of the Holy Ghost.” Now we read that God discovered the Sanctuary of Nature. There is breathed into Adam the breath of life, and nothing between thee and her treasures but he became a living soul. Here you must the door. That indeed must be opened. Now understand that the Third Person is the last of if thy desire leads thee on to the practice, the Three, not that there is any inequality in consider well with thyself what manner of them but it is so in the order of operation, for man thou art and what it is that thou wouldest He applies fi rst to the creature and therefore do: for it is no small matter. Thou hast resolved works last. The Holy Ghost could not breathe with thyself to be a co-operator with the Spirit a soul into Adam but He must either receive of the Living God and to minister to Him in it or have it of Himself. Now the truth is He His work of generation. Have a care therefore receives it, and what He receives that He that thou dost not hinder His work.68 breathes into Nature. Hence this Most Holy Spirit is styled by the Kabalists “the River flowing forth from Paradise,” because He In Vaughan’s system, the “First Matter” was breathes as a river streams. He is also called the intelligible realm. It was equivalent to Mother of sons, because by this breathing He both the fi rst sefi rah and God the Father. It is, as it were, delivered of those souls which subdivided into Mercury and Sulfur, which have been conceived ideally in the Second were the second and third sefi rot, the second Person . . . and as for that which the Kabalist speaks of the fourth and fi fth days it suits not and third persons of the Christian Trinity, and with my present design, and therefore I must the “natures” of the ethereal and material waive it. It is clear then that the Land of the worlds. Discovering the First Matter implied a Living, or the Eternal Fire-Earth, buds and discovery also of the feminine “Sanctuary of sprouts, hath her fi ery spiritual fl owers, which Nature” whose “treasures” were her procreativ- we call souls, as this natural earth hath her ity. The “door” was the vagina. The result of natural vegetables.67 opening the door to Nature’s treasures was Because Vaughan ignored the kabbalists’ to become “a co-operator with the Spirit of teachings about the soul’s descent through the the Living God . . . in His work of generation.” fourth and fi fth sefi rot, there is no need here This is the talmudic and kabbalistic teaching in to go into the kabbalists’ teachings. It suffi ces alchemical guise. The interest in procreation to note that Vaughan identified Hokhmah, contrasts sharply with the goals of tantra, which kabbalists associate with primordial whether Hindu or Buddhist. light, with both light and the sun. He also endorsed the kabbalists’ description of Binah Concluding Refl ections as the Mother. Elsewhere in a passage that was less explicit Western alchemists made and used sulfuric and more allusive, Vaughan assured his reader acid to create a copper-lead alloy that passed that it was indeed marital coitus that he was successfully for gold until the eighteenth discussing. century. Alchemical literature that pertains to

66 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy gold-making should be decoded in chemical What was the connection between metal- terms. Jung’s hypothesis of visions that were lic and spiritual alchemy? My guess is the isomorphic with the chemical processes was Hermetic cosmos. Once Paracelsus developed incorrect, and Eliade’s hypothesis of a parallel the consequences of Agrippa’s cosmology for with Hindu alchemy has no bearing on mysti- metallic alchemy, the way was opened for an cism. Western spiritual alchemy began with alchemical treatment not only of Hermetic Paracelsus, who integrated his practice of metal- conjuring, but of mystical phenomena in lic alchemy with Agrippa’s Hermetic cosmol- general—psychoactive drugs, kabbalistic magic, ogy. In the process, Paracelsus transformed and whatever else may be demonstrable. kabbalistic angel conjuring into a conjuring of elemental spirits. Both psychoactive drugs Notes and scrying stones were used by alchemists of the following period, ex hypothesi as means to experience the spiritual nature of the sublunar 1 Mary Anne Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic and ethereal realms, respectively. Alchemists Mysteries (1918; rpt. Belfast: William Tait). also adapted the kabbalah’s procedures for 2Dan Merkur, Gnosis: An Ecstatic Tradition of Mystical incarnating souls during marital sex. Visions and Unions (Albany, NY: State University of New Experiences of mystical death and a climac- York Press, 1993), 56-71. tic mystical union may both be found not 3Alchemy was treated as a transformative initiatory path only in Western spiritual alchemy, but also by Françoise Bonardel, “Alchemical Esotericism and the in the kabbalah, the Sufi sm of as-Simnani,69 Hermeneutics of Culture,” in Antoine Faivre and Jacob and Christian theosophy.70 The kabbalah, Needleman, eds., Modern Esoteric Spirituality (New York: like some Western alchemists, made use of Crossroad, 1992), 71-100. the psychoactive substance that was coded 4Existing studies are partial and inconclusive. Noel as manna. Western spiritual alchemy was L. Brann, “Alchemy and Melancholy in Medieval and considerably more, however, than an initiatory Renaissance Thought: A Query into the Mystical Basis path. In spiritual alchemy, as in both Jewish of Their Relationship,” Ambix 32 (1985), 127-48, noted that Marsilio Ficino revived Plato’s concept of inspired merkavah mysticism and the practical kabbalah madness and rehabilitated melancholy. The association 71 of Abraham Abulafia, initiations might be of melancholy with death facilitated melancholy’s followed by practices of conjuring angels. equation with the metallic blackening in sixteenth century The sexual mysticism that we fi nd in Thomas alchemy. Robert M. Schuler, “Some Spiritual Alchemies Vaughan originated with a different school of Seventeenth-Century England,” Journal of the History of Ideas 41 (1980), 304-306, cites an anonymous, late of the kabbalah, but had been harmonized sixteenth or early seventeenth century text in which the with the kabbalah of angelic names by Moses action of Divine grace to convert and renew a sinner was Cordovero (1522-1570). For our sixteenth analogized to the metallic opus. and seventeenth-century alchemists, spiritual 5Maurice P. Crosland, Historical Studies in the Language alchemy was a blend of Hermetic philosophy of Chemistry (1962; rpt. New York: Dover Publications, with mystical practices of the kabbalah. 1978).

Theosophical History VIII/2 67 6F. Sherwood Taylor, “A Survey of Greek Alchemy,” 20John Read, Through Alchemy to Chemistry: A Procession Journal of Hellenic Studies 50 (1930), 109-39; idem, The of Ideas and Personalities (London: G. Bell, 1957), Alchemists (1952; rpt. St. Albans, UK: Paladin/Granada 24-25. Publishing Ltd., 1976). 21Taylor, The Alchemists, 174. 7Merkur, Gnosis, 77-107. 22Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult 8Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science Philosophy or Magic, ed. Henry Morley (1897; rpt. New of the Soul, trans. William Stoddart (London: Vincent York: Samuel Weiser Inc., 1975), 33, 57, 67, 69. Stuart & John M. Watkins Ltd., 1967; rpt. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books Inc., 1971), 23. 23Dan Merkur, “Stages of Ascension in Hermetic Rebirth,” Esoterica 1/1 (1998), 67-84 [www.esoteric.msu.edu]. 9Ibid, 25. 24Wolf Dieter Müller-Jahncke, “The Attitude of Agrippe 10Carl G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, 2nd ed., trans. R. von Nettesheim (1486-1535) Towards Alchemy,” Ambix F. C. Hull. Collected Works, Vol. 12 (Princeton: Princeton 22 (1975), 134-50. University Press, 1968), 34. 25Merkur, Gnosis, 253-64. 11Ibid, 245. 26William Newman, “Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of 12Ibid, 250. Agrippa von Nettesheim,” Ambix 29 (1982), 125-40.

13Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible, trans. Stephen 27Jean D’Espagnet, The Summary of Physics Restored Corrin (London: Rider & Company, 1962; rpt. New York: (Enchyridion Physicae Restitutae): The 1651 Translation with Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971), 149, 150. D’Espagnet’s Arcanum (1650), ed. Thomas Willard (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999), 3-86. 14Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, The Alchemy of Happiness, trans. Claud Field (London: Octagon Press, 1980). 28Ibid, 89-131.

15Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufi sm, 29Ibid, 86. trans. Nancy Pearson (1971; rpt. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1978), 77, 135. 30Eliade, 159.

16Arthur Edward Waite, Azoth; or, The Star in the East 31Ibid. (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1893). 32David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha 17Arthur Edward Waite, Lives of the Alchemystical Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago: University of Philosophers (London: G. Redway, 1988); rpt. titled: Chicago Press, 1996). Alchemists Through the Ages (Blauvelt, NY: Rudolf Steiner, 1970); idem, The Secret Tradition in Alchemy: Its 33David Gordon White, personal communication, 1999. Development and Records (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & New York: A. A. Knopf, 1926). 34Eliade, 133.

18Waite, Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers, 36. 35Ibid.

19Erik John Holmyard, in Nature 118 (Dec. 18, 1926), 36Gareth Roberts, The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas 870. and Images in Manuscripts and Books, From Antiquity to

68 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy the Seventeenth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Lionel Whitby, “John Dee and Renaissance Scrying,” Press, 1994), 32-33, 50. Bulletin of the Society of Renaissance Studies 3 (1985), 25-35; Deborah E. Harkness, John Dee’s Conversations 37Johannes Fabricius, Alchemy: The Medieval Alchemists with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature and their Royal Art, 2nd ed. (Wellingborough, UK: (Cambridge, UK: University Press, 1999). Aquarian Press, 1989), 11. See also: John Scarborough, “Gnosticism, Drugs, and Alchemy in Late Roman Egypt,” 45John Donne, Verse Letter to the Countesse of Bedford, Pharmacy in History 13 (1971), 151-157; Julius Evola, The ll. 29-30; as cited in Joseph Anthony Mazzeo, “Notes Hermetic Tradition: Symbols and Teachings of the Royal on John Donne’s Alchemical Imagery,” Renaissance Art, trans. E. E. Rehmus (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions and Seventeenth-Century Studies (New York: Columbia International, 1995), 105, 135-37. University Press, & London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964), 74. 38Dan Merkur, The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible and Its Commentators (Rochester, 46Cyrano de Bergerac, Voyages to the Moon and the Sun, VT: Inner Traditions International, 2000). trans. Richard Aldington (London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd., & New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., n.d.). 39Elias Ashmole, ed., Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, new intro. Allen G. Debus (1652; rpt. New York: Johnson 47Kenneth Rexroth, “A Foreword to the Works of Thomas Reprint Corp., 1967), 10. Vaughan,” in Thomas Vaughan, The Works of Thomas Vaughan, Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes, ed. 40Francis Barrett, “The True Secret of the Philosophers’ Arthur Edward Waite (1919; rpt. New York: University Stone; or, Jewel of Alchymy. Wherein the Process of Books, 1968), 10-11, suggested that Thomas Vaughan making the great elixir is discovered; by which base owed his early death to practices of tantra in sexual metals may be turned into pure gold; containing the union with his wife. See also: Robert Anton Wilson, most excellent and profi table instructions in the Hermetic “Sexual Alchemy,” Gnosis 8 (1988), 28-39; Bernadette Lynn Art; discovering that valuable and secret medicine of Bosky, “Occultism and the Renaissance Outlook,” Gnosis the philosophers, To make Men Healthy, Wise, and 14 (1990), 60-67; John Michael Greer & Carl Hood, Jr., “A Happy” (1801). In: The Magus (Rpt. Seacaucus, NJ: Mystery of Sex,” Gnosis 43 (1997), 21-27; Timothy O’Neill, Citadel Press, 1975), 57. “A Fire in the Shadows: The Roots and Aims of Modern Magickal Sexuality,” Gnosis 17 (1990), 26-31. 41Ibid, 58. 48Evola, 52-63, 140-41. 42John H. Appleby, “Arthur Dee and Johannes Bánfi Hunyades: Further Information on Their Alchemical and 49Ibid, 55, 56. Professional Activities,” Ambix 24 (1977), 96. 50Ibid, 63. 43Paracelsus, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings, 2 vols., trans. Arthur Edward Waite (1894; rpt. Berkeley: 51Ibid, 57. Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1976), I, 14. 52Ibid, 173. 44Arthur Edward Waite, trans. & ed., The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly (London: James Elliott & Co., 53Karen-Claire Voss, “Spiritual Alchemy: Interpreting 1893; rpt. London: Robinson & Watkins, 1973), xxiv-xxv; Representative Texts and Images,” in Roelof van den Broek Wayne Shumaker, “John Dee’s Conversation with Angels,” & Wouter J. Hanegraaff, eds., Gnosis and Hermeticism Renaissance Curiosa (Binghamton, NY: Centre for from Antiquity to Modern Times (Albany, NY: State Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University University of New York Press, 1998), 174; see also: of New York at Binghamton, 1982), 15-51; Christopher idem, “The Hierosgamos Theme in the Images of the

Theosophical History VIII/2 69 Rosarium Philosophorum” in Z. R. W. M. von Martels, ed., 64Idel, Hasidism, 107. Alchemy Revisited (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990), 152. Voss’s argument is not persuasive, because she built her case 65Vaughan, 33-34. on interpretations of seventeenth-century alchemical illustrations that depicted the Sun and Moon naked, 66Ibid, 93-95. having sex, as a two-headed one-torsoed creature, as giving birth to their son Gold, and so forth. Closely similar 67Ibid, 294-97. motifs defi nitely concerned the metallic opus in alchemical texts of the same period, for example, “Sir Edward Kelle’s 68Ibid, 232-33. Worke” in Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 324-31, and Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (trans. & 69Jamal J. Elias, The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and ed. Joscelyn Godwin [Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, Thought of `Ala’ ad-dawla as-Simnani (Albany, NY: State 1989]). Methodologically, it would be preferable to University of New York Press, 1995). interpret seventeenth century art in terms of seventeenth- century literature than in terms of twentieth-century 70Arthur Versluis, Theosophia: Hidden Dimensions of speculations. Christianity (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1994).

54Moshe Idel, “Sexual Metaphors and Praxis in the 71For introductions, see: Gershom G. Scholem, Major Kabbalah,” in David Kraemer, ed., The Jewish Family: Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 3rd ed. (New York: Schocken Metaphor and Memory (New York & Oxford: Oxford Books, Inc., 1954). University Press, 1989), 197-224. * * * * * 55Moshe Idel, Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), 97. It was Iggeret HaKodesh that the Hasidic rebbe was reading in the 1992 Sidney Lumet movie, “A Stranger Among Us.”

56Seymour J. Cohen, trans., The Holy Letter: A Study in Jewish Sexual Morality (New York: Ktav, 1976; rpt. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc., 1993), 72.

57Ibid, 92.

58Ibid.

59Ibid, 80.

60The third sefi rah, Understanding, was here termed Tevunah rather than its cognate Binah, as was more customary.

61Cohen, 138.

62Ibid, 138-40.

63Ibid, 164.

70 Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy Walter Richard Old: The Man Who Held Helena Blavatsky’s Hand

Kim Farnell

oday Walter Old is remembered amongst twenty years he would be able to watch a Tastrologers as Sepharial—a contemporary of whole community grow around him.7 It would Alan Leo’s and one of the foremost astrologers be a long time before Handsworth became of his day. He was the author of at least 60 a suburb of Birmingham and even longer books—most of them astrological works.1 before it gained the reputation it has today. Old edited a number of publications—again The family did not originate from this area and mainly astrological,2 and wrote for almost in later years Walter delighted in establishing every magazine going—including the local his pedigree as having been descended from and national press.3 He also wrote a number the Danish conqueror Gorm Eld in the ninth of predictive pamphlets which were self century.8 At the age of four his father died9 published and available only by private and the household comprised Walter, his four subscription.4 These were extremely expensive brothers, his sister, his grandmother and what and prepared for the individual subscriber appears to be a severely overworked servant. who was obliged to sign a non-reproduction Though the family were not by any stretch agreement.5 Additionally, he produced private of the imagination rich, they were wealthy astrological reports for clients—eventually. enough to send him away to school where he Along with many astrologers of the day he had received a classical education.10 the tendency to take 6 to 9 months to produce On leaving school he was briefl y appren- an astrological report which hardly endeared ticed to a chemist in Birmingham and spent him towards his clients. his leisure time attending medical lectures. However, his relationship with the Theo- Due to this tentative connection with medicine sophical movement is not so widely known. he was able to dispense drugs. It was during Although it is commonly recorded that he was this period that he began to study mystical a friend of Helena Blavatsky and a member of and astrological texts. Shortly before the age the Theosophical Society his involvement goes of sixteen he began a serious study of the far beyond that often hinted at. Scriptures in the original and the works of On March 20th 1864 Walter Richard Old authors such as Swedenborg. He may well was born to Jane Amelia and George Old, who have continued this life as an academic intel- was a haberdasher in Handsworth.6 At this time lectual working in his leisure time if it were not Handsworth was an area of West Bromwich. for the events of 1886 which were to totally Few houses existed here although in the next change his life.11

Theosophical History VIII/2 71

Early in 1886 Walter was engaged to be as during this year Walter began a regular married to a girl in Birmingham. He could have correspondence with Helena Blavatsky and been expected to marry, produce a few children, other Theosophists.17 At this time “I was saturat- keep his family and have a few intellectual ing myself with the study of comparative interests on the side. His life was set out before theology, and intent upon getting at the truths him. Then his fi ancée broke off the engagement. fundamental to all religious systems as a basis He threw himself into his intellectual work and for a constructive system of thought.” He in his own words “I had little taste for anything was later to claim that Blavatsky got in touch but the mystical. I haunted the second-hand with him although earlier records refer to his bookshops during the day in search of curious beginning a correspondence. He was certainly literature . . . I burned the candle pretty evenly determined to meet her. A letter from a London at both ends . . . .”12 contact came inviting him to spend an evening On the night of 5th August 1886 Walter had at his home with some friends discussing vari- a mystical experience which was to change his ous occult problems. As a by the way, his friend outlook and affect his whole life. His serious would take him to meet HPB the following day. occult and astrological work date from just The date they met is unknown although Old after this time. He published a description in describes it as a “fi ne summer day.”18 the Theosophical magazine Lucifer.13 At his fi rst meeting Walter felt at ease. He The article is entitled “My Unremembered took the proffered cigarette and spent the Self: The Experience of An Astral Tramp.” The afternoon chatting about theosophy. “And Astral Tramp name was given to him by Helena then she asked me to tell her about myself, Blavatsky because of his tendency to roam and gave me some practical advice, and soon about her house in his astral body at night.14 afterwards I had taken leave of the most The article was published in 1891, several interesting person that I had ever seen.” Some months after Blavatsky’s death. months later it was suggested that he make his The experience described occurred when home at London Headquarters “and throw in after using his crystal for scrying he had a my lot with the new movement”. . . “I would vision which took place in a number of stages. have gone anywhere to have come more It involved meeting himself on a river bank. directly under the pure strong influence of Following this experience he was hysterical and HPB’s example and teaching.” weeping for two days. The illness continued for In April 1888 Old moved permanently two weeks and affected his sight so that he saw into the house belonging to the Keightleys better in the dark and everything he looked at in Landsdowne Road at Holland Park where was seen in incredible detail. From henceforth Helena Blavatsky was holding the reins of he was to devote his life to a search for the the Theosophical movement. The lease of truth and the study of occultism.15 Landsdowne Road expired in 1890 and 19 In 1887 the fi rst Blavatsky Lodge was formed Avenue Road was turned into the Headquarters in South London.16 Word clearly got around for Europe. Archibald and Bertram Keightley

72 Walter Richard Old joined the household in July of that year along innumerable roles. He threw himself into this with Countess Wachtmeister, George Mead, work with boundless enthusiasm. He is recorded her secretary, Claude Wright, Emily Kislingbury, as giving several lectures at the Blavatsky Isabel Cooper Oakley, James Pryse, Annie Lodge as well as other Lodges in London and Besant and, of course, Walter Old. Others were in Birmingham. The Birmingham Lodge was constant visitors to the household including started in August 1890 and Walter’s brother Herbert Burrows and Laura Cooper. Sydney acted as Secretary with his other Olcott in Old Diary Leaves says “it was a brother, Bernard, also involved. According to a large house standing in its own grounds which Theosophical Society member in Birmingham formed a pleasant garden with bits of lawn, who knew the Old family, their mother was very shrubbery and a few trees. Mounting the front opposed to their joining the Society. So opposed, steps, one entered a vestibule and a short in fact that when Walter went to attend an early hall, from each side of which doors opened meeting she sent his younger brother after him into rooms. The front room on the left was to bring him home. Unfortunately that brother HPB’s working room and her small bedchamber preferred to become a member as well.21 adjoined it. From this inner room a short pas- Old was also a member of the Inner Group sage lead into a rather spacious chamber. . . . which comprised six men and six women To the right of the hall . . . was an artistically who had displayed, in Blavatsky’s opinion, furnished dining room which was also used the greatest potential for discipleship and for the reception of visitors. Back of this was occult training. The group, which was sworn a general work room. . . . A door cut through to secrecy, met in the occult room. Each had the north wall of the dining room gave access his or her own chair and sat in a semi-circle to the new hall of the Blavatsky Lodge, while with the women to Blavatsky’s left and the one cut in the south wall of HPB’s room led men to her right.22 into the offi ce of the General Secretary of the By June 1891 Walter Old is recorded as European Section . . ..The upper stories of the Corresponding Secretary for the Birmingham house were sleeping apartments. . . .”19 Lodge. He also became librarian in London Walter is listed as a Council member for that summer. In 1892 he was secretary of 1890 as well as General Secretary for the British the European Convention and organised Section, the same year that Annie Besant was conferences for TS workers from 1890. He was to become a Theosophist—she said of him in involved in setting up other Lodges around her autobiography, “Walter Old, dreamy and London and became Assistant Secretary of the sensitive, a born psychic and like many so European Section. All of this was undertaken easily swayed.”20 because of his great faith in and admiration of During the next years Walter was a rising HPB although he was not one who made gush- star in the TS. He was to become Vice President ing comments unrelated to reality. “Anything of the Blavatsky Lodge, General Secretary of more volcanic than her temper has not found the British Section and librarian undertaking human expression . . . on the other hand

Theosophical History VIII/2 73 a kinder, more compassionate and tender attempt to describe my feelings when the disposition, a heart more alive to the happiness consciousness of our loss. . . dawned upon and misery of others, a nature more responsive my mind. . . .”26 to little acts of sympathy I have certainly never Shortly afterwards he was to hear of his known. . . .” mother’s death which took place on the same In January 1891 HPB asked Walter about the day. What Walter would remember however, chances of her living out that year. He said she was the forget-me-not which HPB pressed into might pull through. Then she said “You are not his hand as she died. being frank with me. You are hiding the truth.” There is no doubt that Walter and Blavatsky The Astrologer protested. “Swear it” she said were close towards the end of her lifetime. “Swear on your honour.” . . . Walter remained He published an article in Lucifer describing silent. “Ah!” exclaimed HPB “You either don’t her as a great friend. “During the night of May know how to swear or you haven’t enough 9, 1891, she appeared to me in her new garb, honour to swear upon!” Thus challenged Walter tall, magnificent and serenely smiling and replied, “Well, HPB, if you live through this questioned me as to her identity. Whether spring it will be a miracle.”23 Elsewhere he I passed the test or not need not transpire, published the comment: “In calculating the the point being that I was fully satisfi ed that directions for the year 1891 I mentioned that the what she had affi rmed had come to pass—she spring of the year was a very dangerous period, whom I had known as HPB was and now is a and I confess that during April my mind was male incarnation. . . .” He later described hear- very anxious on this point.”24 There was a great ing her voice in places she usually frequented amount of interest in Blavatsky’s horoscope as knowing that no-one had been present.27 well as questionable data but Old gained the Helena Blavatsky was one of the first information from her himself. people to be cremated in this country, on A week before her death HPB spent her May 11th 1891 in Woking with Walter Old time sorting her papers. The night before her being in attendance as were a large number of death saw her desk the tidiest it had ever been Theosophists making their way in various ways and she spent the night lighting one cigarette from London avoiding pomp and circumstance after another and sitting in her armchair. The as she had requested. next day she had her chair removed to her In 1890 Annie Besant had joined the Theo- bedroom and spent the day there. sophical Society, known as a secularist free- On May 8th, when she died, Walter was thinker she was famed for her lectures. She was present. Holding her hand and kneeling at also renowned for advocating birth control and the foot of her chair he stayed with her until was almost jailed at one point for publishing she drew her last breath. Clad Write was also a pamphlet on the subject. Annie Besant’s life present, holding her left hand with Laura is well documented elsewhere. She thought of Cooper standing with an arm around her.25 Walter as an easily malleable dreamer and was “Her right hand grew cold in mine. I will not instrumental in his divorce from the Society.

74 Walter Richard Old Walter did not allow Blavatsky’s death confi dences between us, which for the fi rst to lessen his involvement with Theosophy. time opened my eyes to the treacherous He was constantly lecturing at the Blavatsky policy that Mr Judge had been following up with regard to the Society and myself in the Lodge and was always on hand to help a new matter of his relations with the Masters. I Lodge set up. He was also a major fi gure in cannot tell how shocked I was to discover the Birmingham Lodge. His brother Sydney his lack of principle and to fi nd that my more was secretary there and his other brother or less vague suspicions fell far short of the Bernard heavily involved. Walter was invited as reality. Without making any pretensions to a regular speaker and would get an audience exceptional goodness I certainly never did anything to warrant him making in a forged of 60 to 70 people. letter, my own Teacher and adored Guru, The Judge affair is of paramount importance seem to say that if Mrs Besant should carry when discussing Old’s relationship with the out her intention of visiting India she might Theosophical Society. In this short piece I can run the risk of my poisoning her!”29 only gloss over the many events and complex “Mr Keightley and Mr Edge were taken issues raised at the time. into our counsels and helped to compare the documents mutually submitted by Mr Old When Old arrived in India in 1892, he and myself. On the arrival of the delegates to took with him a number of papers to show the convention at the usual time we submit- to Olcott. These documents purported to ted the papers to our respected colleague prove that Judge had been using the names Judge Khandalavala of Poona who decid- and handwriting of the Mahatmas in order to edly advised me to prosecute the case as it bolster his own aims. By this stage Old and was too serious a menace to the Society’s prosperity to allow it go on.”30 his friend and fellow Theosophist, Sydney Edge had been in correspondence with Olcott challenging Judge’s claims. In Olcott’s own By 1893 Annie Besant became a player in words: the affair. On 25th July Olcott notes “the receipt by that days foreign mail of angry letters from “The arrival of Mr Walter G Old of the London her to Messrs Edge and Old formerly members staff with the budget of notes and memo- of the London staff but then transferred to randa he had taken enabled me by compar- Adyar. These young men had taken exception ing documents to see the depth and fullness of the treachery which Mr Judge had been to some puerile views and misstatements of long planning. . . . I fi nd from my diary of fact recently made by Judge and their letters 1893 that the greater part of the fi rst day was to friends in London had caused a great sensa- spent by Messrs Keightley, Old and myself tion and aroused in the Judge party a bitter in summarising the evidence in the case”. . resentment.31 Mrs Besant wrote in plaintive . “day by day our consultations on the Judge terms about their alleged defection and said case continued until the 8th of the month when Mr SV Edge, Mr Kawakami and I sailed that America would cut off my money supplies 32 for Calcutta . . .”28 and elsewhere: “Almost if I kept the young men here. . . .” As Olcott immediately there was an interchange of had recently signed documents giving all his

Theosophical History VIII/2 75 personal property to the Theosophical Society, WQ Judge of fraudulent misrepresentation this was a major threat. whereby he had constituted himself and Unfortunately, as events transpired Old Mrs Besant the Outer Heads of the Esoteric Section of the TS and she was given the became sorely needed at Adyar. The Treasurer evidence with which she could demand and Recording Secretary SE Gopacharlu com- his resignation. The European convention mitted suicide when it was discovered that he of the TS was duly called and WQ Judge had been embezzling the Society. Money was was present. Mrs Besant called him to the sent from a variety of TS individuals to Olcott platform, extolled his name in the annals of and Old was given the posts in late 1893.33 occultism and sent him back to America with better reputation as a representative of the TS In 1894 Olcott informed Judge that charges than he had ever enjoyed before. Then Mrs were that he had misused the names and Besant went and burned the evidence! . . . So handwriting of the Mahatmas and asked him to save herself from the fi nger of scorn she to either resign or appear before a judicial elected to bury herself in the mud. committee. Judge cabled by return “Charges also false. You can take what proceedings you And it may all have ended there. Except for think fi t; going to London in July.” a strange set of circumstances which had led On March 20th the charges were sent Old into making the acquaintance some time by Olcott to Judge. The Committee met on before of Edmund Garrett, a journalist on the 10 July 1894. The charges were brought by Westminster Gazzette. During riots against the Annie Besant. The Committee found that as Salvation Army in Eastbourne a notice was the charges were bound up with belief in placed in the Pall Mall Gazette by Charles the Mahatmas they could not try the matter Money of Petersfield. It requested that 500 because of the neutrality of the TS constitution. Englishmen should go to defend the “Hallelujah Judge was not charged with forgery but with lasses.” He got five. A couple of journalists, giving a misleading material form to messages amongst them his friend Garrett and a young received psychically from the Mahatmas in Theosophist, Walter Old. A small riot ensued various ways. “and Mr Money and one other were knocked On September 27, 1894 Old, then Treasurer about in the crowd . . . he quitted himself like and Recording Secretary at Adyar sent in a man . . . was Mr W R Old, Theosophist.”34 his resignation being “unable to accept the Garrett and Old kept in contact and it was to offi cial state with regard to the enquires held him that Old turned when dissatisfi ed by the upon the charges preferred against the Vice outcome of the Judge affair. President of the TS.” Later he was to write At the end of March 1894 Old left India of the Inquiry to return to England. He had by now been suspended by the Esoteric Section owing to Mrs Besant was empowered by the Council his activities continuing against Judge.35 Papers of the Theosophical Society convened at were known to be circulating in the US and Adyar to go Back to England and expose “a retired member” from Adyar had refused to

76 Walter Richard Old give up his papers. The notice of Edge’s and his actions. The material is best summarised Old’s suspension was published. The game by the rhyme published in the Westminster was being played without Old’s involvement. Gazzette: He kept out of London although keeping a close eye on events. In October 1894 a series I reside at Table Mountain and my name is of articles began in the Westminster Gazette Truthful James; covering the recent activities of the TS. Not I am not fond of pious frauds or Oriental games; only was it clear that Old must have given the And I’ll tell in simple language, as well as relevant papers to Garrett but he had informed I can say, Edge in advance of his intentions. An in-house What broke up our Society upon the Hima- argument was suddenly turned into a public lay. fi ght. Sydney Edge wrote to Mead “Old writes me he is having the Judge case written up for But fi rst I would remark that there needs be painful scenes the papers. If anything is published I want you When Theosophic gents begin to give each to understand that it has been done without other Beans; my approval and consent. . . .”36 Old was And though Mahatma missives do pan out on his own. This was further hammered in a little queer, by Annie Besant’s comment “one of the sad We should avoid disturbances in the Mahat- memories of those old days is the memory mosphere. of the friends that once were . . . far more Now nothing could be nicer or more full have gone through envy, hatred, malice and of harmony all uncharitableness. . ..” Olcott also denied Than the fi rst few months that followed the any connection and stated that the copies decease of “HPB”; had been made by Old “without my consent” Till Judge of Calaveras produced a curious and that he had held them under lock and set Of missives in red pencil which he said were key—conveniently forgetting that the docu- from Tibet. ments only came into his care after Old had brought them to India. From these he constructed a Mahatma (very The articles and related correspondence ran rare), for two months under the title “Isis Very Much A Nest of that peculiar kind pertaining to Unveiled: The Story of the Great Mahatma a Mare; But Mrs Besant found a rival missive on Hoax.” Havoc was wrought throughout the the shelf, TS and when the articles were later bound And said she fancied Mr Judge had written and published in book form someone paid his himself. for copies to be sent to all Lodges of the Then Judge’s smile took on a most unpleasant TS. Old never denied having supplied the sort of curve; papers37 although he vehemently opposed He said he would not trespass so on Mrs B’s preserve. any suggestion that he had made money from

Theosophical History VIII/2 77

He was a most resourceful man that quiet instigation on the part of anyone . . . I am Mr Judge: responsible for the facts occurring in Mr Garretts He got another missive saying Mrs B’s was articles. . . .”39 fudge. Clearly this was not to make Old popular Now, it is not edifying for a Theosophic within the TS. In November GS Mead wrote priest under the title “Mine Own Familiar Friend in To call another one a fraud—to all intents Whom I Trusted”: “Just as we go to press a at least; series of articles making a most indiscriminate Nor should the individual who happens to and vicious onslaught on several of our friends be meant Reply by throwing things about to any great and colleagues is being published in the extent. Westminster Gazette. We are deeply sorry to have to inform our readers that the inspirer Then Olcott, H, of Adyar raised a point of of the attack is Mr WR Old who witnessed order, when the passing away of HPB. Virulence and A chunk of old red pencil took him in the misrepresentation can, however, only defeat abdomen; 40 And he smiled a kind of sickly smile and their own ends.” Sydney Edge had also had curled up on the fl oor, enough and he resigned from the Society on And the subsequent proceedings interested 12th December 1894. him no more. In 1895 the US section seceded from the main TS along with a number of other lodges For, in less time than I write it, all the meeting in Britain, Europe and Australia which with- got upset With “precipitating” missiles which did not drew from the jurisdiction of Adyar and come from Tibet; became affiliated with the Judge led move- And the things they called each other in their ment.41 anger were a sin— Telling the “truth” did not make Walter Till the public got disgusted and the temple popular. He was obliged to move out of London roof caved in. and decided he needed a new identity.42 On And this is all I have to say of these improper 19th April 1895 he changed his name to Walter games, Gornold based on the name of Gorm Eld. The For I live at Table Mountain and my name family held a Gorm stone from Denmark and is Truthful James; the letter change was simply to make it more And I’ve told in simple language all I know palatable. The Judge affair kept Theosophists about the fray busy for months yet and was only really over That broke up our Society upon the Hima- lay.38 in March 1896 when Judge, then President of the Theosophical Society in America died. And as a comment from Old: “I take the By June Walter had eloped with and married whole Karma of my action and I affirm that Marie Moore and begun a life as astrologer it is wholly independent of connivance or and family man. His brothers retained their

78 Walter Richard Old connection with the Theosophical Society. as theosophy goes there seemed to be little Sydney was to become President of the Bristol contact between them. After all Sepharial Lodge before moving to British Columbia was mixing in important circles at this time in 1913. Bernard moved to Nottingham and and regarded the Leos as largely insignifi cant. gradually drifted away from the TS though this Leo’s introduction to theosophy was of major was some years after Walter left. Sturdy, who importance in the astrological world. His brand was another major protagonist in the whole of Theosophical astrology changed the face affair also left the TS. In 1904 he ran into Alice of astrology in the English speaking world Leighton Cleather and she records how he had and was a precursor of modern psychological become a complete sceptic and referred to astrology. HPB as a “Wicked old woman!” By 1896 not only was Walter no longer Outside Theosophy, by this stage, Old, involved in the TS but his connection with as Sepharial, had a strong reputation as an Leo was also broken. He married in June of astrologer. He worked with Alan Leo and this year and his daughter, Cynthia was born Frederick Lacey who were to launch the the following year. He cited 1897 as the year magazine which later became Modern Astrol- he began his voluntary work for astrology ogy. In 1896 a Society was formed with Leo as although he was clearly still attempting to President and Old as Secretary. make a living from his work. His daughters Still a staunch Theosophist during this Iris and Ivy were born over the next two years period, Walter took Lacey and Leo to meet to be followed by his son Julian in 1900. Fate Helena Blavatsky and also introduced them and Fortune was to fi nally die this year and to Col. Olcott and WQ Judge. This led to Walter threw himself into his books as well as the two founding the Philalethian Lodge in selling calculating machines and other gadgets Brixton. The Judge affair was fi nally to break and producing horse racing results. His son the relationship between Sepharial and Leo. died at 17 days and Walter withdrew even By October 1896 Leo stated in MA “Owing more from mainstream astrological activities. to the fact that letters addressed to Sepharial An accident to his hand this year lead to blood continue to come into this offi ce, it becomes poisoning and he was left with a permanently necessary for me to announce that he is no disabled left hand. longer connected with this magazine . . . in By 1905 Walter was fi rmly established in the future letters addressed to this office will astrological world. He had three more children therefore be returned.”43 Royal, Barbara and Averil. After meeting EH The weak friendship was never to be re- Bailey in 1902 he became a contributor to the established. However, it may be worth noting British Journal of Astrology and continued to that the Leos were never involved in Theosophi- write for it each month until his death. Not to cal organisation until AFTER Walter left the give up on his own periodicals he launched organisation. Apart from inviting him to lecture Forecast magazine in 1906. He became the at the Philalethean Lodge in Brixton as far editor of Old Moore’s almanac and was produc-

Theosophical History VIII/2 79 ing books and articles at the rate of knots. big in the early 1920’s and believed that the Although a member of the Home Guard he Anglo-Saxon race was one of the lost tribes of found time to travel and lecture in Skegness Israel.48 His astrological work continued but as the guest of Isabel Pagan, a rising star in he described himself variously as a scientifi c northern Theosophical circles.44 author/scientist during this period. He adopted In 1914 comments were printed in cor- the title Dr after an honorary degree was respondence from Old, under his nom de awarded to him by an American university. Still plume, Sepharial, indicating that he still took writing for the British Journal of Astrology his a close watch on Theosophical affairs. The work was more scriptural than astrological and Order of the Star in the East took his attention he was also a correspondent for the Morning but most of the correspondence related to his Post. attempts to verify Krishnamurti’s birth data. He In 1927 the Elim pastor George Jeffreys made obviously had retained some contacts with the his first visit to Hove. This was the start of a movement as he also published a comment series of crusades on the south coast. The Elim making it clear that he had photographs of Pentecostal church had been started by George Leadbeater’s letters. His opinion of Leadbeater Jeffreys in 1915. The Gornold family were, at this was hardly flattering: “Such assertions are time living in Brighton. Three of the daughters those of one suffering from acute megalomania, of the family, Cynthia, Averil and Barbara, were in common parlance, swollen head . . . a taken to a mission by Lady Muriel de Sevin in self accused fraud.”45 By this time the only 1927 and became members of the Elim Church. theosophy acceptable to him was that of The Elim church had—and has—connections Blavatsky. In speaking of Leadbeater again, with the British Israel movement in that many of “The fact that Madame Blavatsky gave neither it’s members were also members of the World recognition nor support to this man . . . ought Federation of British Israel although there is and to carry its message to the mind of the victim.” was no formal connection.49 His view of Annie Besant was generally more In the summer of 1929 Walter and his family positive though an air of despair permeates his attended a tent campaign in Worthing. He was writings of her. “Mrs Besant is strong enough to leave that meeting a member of the Elim and good enough to lead any movement for the church after being baptised by immersion. An spiritual enfranchisement of her contemporaries. account of this meeting reads “A well known . . .”46 An apology for Old’s reporting of the Brighton doctor, a scientist, came over to Leadbeater case, which was primarily gleaned the last great Sunday night meeting. He had from the press was demanded by and grudg- been greatly infl uenced by the impassioned ingly offered to Annie Besant. message and the wonderful spirit of the During the 1920s Sepharial’s work was meeting, and was just hoping that the same heavily focused on pyramid study47 and the atmosphere might go through and be felt in study of biblical prophecy. He was a supporter all the churches and that all might be united of the British Israel movement which was quite in the same life and fervour.”50 The baptism

80 Walter Richard Old took place on 25 August 1929. Worthing baths Of planets shining bright, was thronged with people singing hymns What was his art to draw within the sense “one man there it was whispered was a great The music of the spheres, the symphony 51 Of orbs angelic, rolling songs intense scientist”. Dressed in white, seventy people With God-like sympathy? were baptised that evening. Each baptism was We loved one whom we did not wish to preceded by a scriptural reading. Dr Gornold’s, die; as he was then was:—Isaiah 33 v 17 “Thine The stellar anthems charmed his ears one eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall night; behold the land that is very far off.”52 This was He took the pathway through the Galaxy And passed along its light. to be the end of Walter’s search. On 29th December 1929, in Brighton, His children went on to gain fame in their Walter Gornold died of a cerebral hemorrhage own right.57 Averil after training as an actress brought on by “milk poisoning”—undulant under Sybil Thorndike became a lecturer in fever.53 He reminded his daughter Cynthia, who biblical prophecy and lectured frequently was working as his secretary, in July of that on behalf of the British Israelite movement, year that he had told her that his work would publishing some of her lectures. Roy became a end in 1929. Obituaries were published in the director of Christian fi lms, Iris and Ivy opened national press as well as in the astrological and a ballroom dancing school in Brighton before occult press. Tributes poured in from all over Iris left for South Africa. Cynthia wrote about the world. According to his daughter Cynthia, talismans and magic as Sepharial’s daughter58 he had confi ded in her in 1926 that his work until marrying an Elim pastor and working for would end in 1929 and reminded her of this the church. Her son, Christopher is now an six months before he died—or to be strictly Elim pastor. Barbara gained an MBE for her correct that a shadow would cross her life in work with a Christian road safety campaign.59 December.54 Although I have found no other The family has now all but died out. Roy’s reference to this supposed prediction I have second wife, Alison and Cynthia’s son, Christo- found a number of references to him stating pher, are the only ones left alive. that 1929 was going to be a cataclysmic year. I suppose for him it was. In April of 1930 EH Bailey was still printing Notes thanks in the British Journal of Astrology for 54 the tributes received. The one that follows 1As well as writing astrological texts, Old translated is typical of many. a number of oriental works, wrote on the Kabbala Thou crescent moon, clipped from the fuller and on clairvoyance and psychism and was the author of What is Theosophy (London: Hay Nisbet and Co., brim, 1891). A full bibliography of his works appears in A slip of silver on the foil of night, his biography. Bent languorous back to catch the eternal hymn 2The Forecast, Coming Events, Fate and Fortune.

Theosophical History VIII/2 81

3Columnist for Brighton’s Morning Post in 1920s. Also Thacker, Spink and Co., 1923). articles in Daily Mail 23 May 1900, Evening News (15 December 1905) amongst others. 15Ibid., 6.

4Advertisements appear in Old Moore’s Monthly Messenger 16Josephine Ransom, A Short History of the Theosophical and its direct descendant, the British Journal of Astrology, Society (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1938) and over a number of years. They are most prolifi c post-1912 Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Vol. IV (New York when following the publication of The Silver Key, the and London: G.R. Putnam’s Sons 1932). Golden Key was heavily advertised available through private subscription. The majority of these pamphlets 17Walter Old, “Teacher and Friend” from In Memory of were concerned with speculation of one sort or another. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky by Some of Her Pupils (London: A number were advertised from 1898 onwards which Theosophical Publishing Society, 1891 [republished advised on commodity markets. From 1912 onwards 1931 and 1991]), 38-40. the emphasis was on sporting speculation, especially horse racing. 18Ibid.

5In 1917 commodities predictions were offered for sale 19Old Diary Leaves, IV: 264. for 20/-. An annual forecast cost as much as £5. By 1922 it would cost £20 to buy a copy of such works 20Annie Besant, An Autobiography (Adyar: The Theosophi- as the Apex which advised on techniques for general cal Publishing House, 1932). speculation. See advertisements in British Journal of Astrology (1912–1929). 21Private correspondence Graham Willison, President Birmingham Lodge Theosophical Society. 6Birth certifi cate. 22Marion Meade, Madame Blavatsky (New York: Putnams, 7The Village Atlas: The Growth of Birmingham and the West 1980), 446, and Alice Leighton Cleather, HP Blavatsky Midlands 1831-1907 (Alderman Press, 1989). Her Life and Work for Humanity (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1922). 8Private correspondence Christopher Gornold-Smith and British Journal of Astrology (November 1913 and 23Coming Events (October 1899). February 1930). 24Astrologer’s Magazine (October 1891). 9Letter in Astrologers Magazine (July 1891). Confi rmed by Death Certifi cate. 25Laura Cooper, “How She Left Us,” from In Memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky by Some of Her Pupils, 3-7. 10Private correspondence Christopher Gornold-Smith and British Journal of Astrology (November 1913 and 26Old, Teacher and Friend. February 1930). 27Scrutator, “Madame Blavatsky: A Personal Reminiscence,” 11do. Occult Review (March 1914).

12My Unremembered Self: The Experience of An Astral 28Old Diary Leaves, IV: 543. Tramp—Lucifer (October 1891). 29Old Diary Leaves, IV. 13Ibid. 30Ibid. 14Alice Leighton Cleather, HPB As I Knew Her (Calcutta:

82 Walter Richard Old 31Reference to letter from Sydney Edge and Walter Old in that he was well known to them and lectured at Theosophic Freethought (July 1893). Federation meetings. Private correspondence with Matthew Browning, President of the World Federation 32Old Diary Leaves V: 45. of British Israelites.

33Lucifer (January 1894). 49Private correspondence Pastor Albert Edsor.

34Westminster Gazette (20 November 1894). 50Elim Evangel and Four Square Revivalist (26 September 1929). 35Annie Besant disputed that the two were ever suspended in “The Theosophical Society and the Present Troubles,” 51Elim Evangel and Four Square Revivalist (20 September Lucifer, XV/90. 1929).

36Lucifer, XV/88. 52Private correspondence with Pastor Albert Edsor, present at Walter’s baptism. 37Lucifer (15 December 1894) and elsewhere. 53Death certificate/Private correspondence Alison 38Westminster Gazette (26 November 1894). Gornold.

39Lucifer (15 December 1894). 54Modern Astrology (February 1930) and Daily Mirror (18 January 1929). 40Lucifer (15 November 1894). 55“I still continue to receive letters containing expressions 41Vahan, Vol. IV, No.2. of regret and sorrow at the death of our contributor “Sepharial.” They all go to show the great regard in 42Theosophical Society Membership Ledgers, London. which he was held by readers of the Journal in all parts of the world, and of the reverence and respect for 43Modern Astrology (October 1896). his teachings.” EH Bailey, British Journal of Astrology (April 1930). 44British Journal of Astrology (May 1917/August 1918). Isabel Pagan was a Scottish Theosophist and astrologer 56 who was heavily involved in Theosophy in the north of Letter from Hamish MacHuisdean, British Journal of Britain. She is best remembered as the author of From Astrology (April 1930). Pioneer to Poet, A Sun Sign Book published in 1911 by 57 the Theosophical Publishing Society. Private correspondence, Alison Gornold.

58 45Old Moore’s Monthly Messenger (June 1913). See Starlore, Volume III. March 1930’s issue contains an article entitled Charms and Talismans and is 46Ibid. headed ‘By Cynthia Gornold (Daughter of Dr W Gornold—“Sepharial”)’. 47His proposed book on this subject never appeared and 59 the manuscript was subsequently destroyed. Christian Road Safety Association founded in 1937 by Mrs Barbara Mackie nee Gornold. 48Innumerable articles on this subject appear in the British Journal of Astrology in the 1920s. The World Federation * * * * * of British Israelites have no records confi rming his membership for that period although they confi rm

Theosophical History VIII/2 83

Book Reviews

Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della Crowley (1875-1947). For Theosophists, he is politica. By Marco Pasi. Milan: FrancoAngeli, surely the least welcome voice in the chorus of 1999. Pp. 219 with bibliography and index. H. P. Blavatsky’s admirers! But anyone in search ISBN 88-464-1600-7. Lire 32,000/16.52 Euros. of truth, rather than in the confi rmation of his or her prejudices, must be greatly perplexed by any readers of this Journal will be aware the man. What made him tick? What were the Mthat it is part of a vigorous international sense and the impulse behind his glamorous movement with two complementary aspects: and messy life? Pasi’s answer is unambiguous: the effort to make esoteric, occult, and theo- “If one wants to fi nd coherence in Crowley, one sophical subjects respectable fields for aca- should not seek it so much in his political ideas demic research; and the promotion of scholarly as in his conviction of being a master, sent by values, such as accuracy and impartiality, the gods to bring a new religious message.” within the circles dedicated to those subjects. (p. 49) The message is the Book of the Law, Marco Pasi’s book, adapted from his thesis revealed to Crowley in Egypt, 1904, by an entity in Philosophy at the University of Milan, is called Aiwass: a text that he lost, and found a tribute to the part that Italian scholars again in 1909. This latter year divides the two have come to play in this movement. (For periods of his life, defi ned by Pasi as follows: another example, see the reviews of Massimo “The first is that of the mystical and initiatic Introvigne’s books in Theosophical History journey: a more individualistic phase, marked by IV/3.) Unfortunately, their work bypasses what we might call the ‘search for the Absolute.’ the audience that would most appreciate The second is rather that of utter identifi cation it: the educated but largely monoglot Anglo- on Crowley’s part with the mission with which, American public. Thus, until someone brings from a certain moment, he felt himself invested out an English translation, there will be few as prophet: to spread the religion of Thelema.” readers outside continental Europe for this (pp. 50-51) Crowley is to be classed, then, with epoch-making study of “Aleister Crowley and all those other founders of religions who, often the Temptation of Politics.” against their will and worldly interests, are Why epoch-making? Because it is the fi rst made the instrument of some metaphysical scholarly book written about the most contro- agenda. Once touched—by whatever it is that versial esotericist of the twentieth century. From causes such phenomena—they have no choice the Lumpenokkultisten who drool over his but to devote their lives to proclaiming a new pornographic naughtiness, to the Traditionalists revelation. for whom he was an envoy of the Counter- When one sees Crowley in this company, Initiation, no one is indifferent to Aleister much is explained, and, if need be, forgiven.

84 Book Review: Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica Marco Pasi was inspired to begin this narrow bourgeois values, and the complacent research by his mentor Giorgio Galli, author jingoism of the late Victorian and Edwardian of Hitler e il nazismo magico—Le componenti eras. By sending him to Trinity College, esoteriche del Reich millenario (Milan: Rizzoli, Cambridge, his parents unwittingly exposed 1989/1993) and La politica e i maghi—Da him to a torrent of antinomian influences, Richelieu a Clinton (Rizzoli, 1995), who con- particularly skepticism, bisexual adventures, tributes the Foreword to the present work. and the arts of the Decadent period. After Pasi was struck by the frequent appearance they had conveniently died, leaving him of Crowley’s name in these contexts, and he with a small fortune, he reveled in punishing followed Galli’s example in trying to sift the them and all that they stood for. As Pasi truth about these emotionally laden topics says of Crowley’s anti-British writings, “In from rumors and lies. For example, was there his American articles, he was basically not any truth to René Guénon’s statement in a invoking the victory of Germany, but the end letter to Julius Evola, that Crowley in 1931 of what he had always detested in England” faked his suicide in Portugal, but in fact “had (80-81). gone to Berlin to assume the role of secret These early attitudes blended with Crow- advisor to Hitler, who was then starting up”? ley’s prophetic mission to bring him to a And whether this was true or not, is there any political stance indefi nable in terms of Left or justification for the adoption of Crowley by Right, but akin to what is sometimes called certain far-right groups of today? the “Third Way.” The teachings of Thelema are, Pasi shows a remarkable grasp of the like the Left, anti-bourgeois and anti-Christian. English social and emotional world in which But despite their central tenet that “Every man Crowley grew up. The ingredients of his and every woman is a star,” they show nothing political alphabet-soup are carefully sifted and but contempt for the masses. Searching for a analyzed, so that one can see why Crowley parallel, Pasi compares Crowley’s politics to was variously an anti-British imperialist, anti- the ‘tween-wars political movement known Dreyfusard, anti-capitalist, anti-bourgeois, as the Conservative Revolution. It may seem pro-Irish nationalist, pro-Jacobite legitimist, surprising to juxtapose Crowley with such pro-Spanish Carlist, pro-US Confederate, and serious fi gures as Ernst Jünger, Edgar Julius pro-Boer. One can understand why, during Jung, or Möller Van den Bruck, but he did World War I (which he spent in the USA), share with them a re-affi rmation of spiritual he almost fatally compromised himself with values in a materialistic world, an impatience the pro-German opposition. Crowley was with all recent political structures, and an at heart a romantic; hence his sympathy ultimate trust only in the superior individual. for colorful nationalist movements and for This brings Pasi to the question of Crowley’s deposed monarchs, to say nothing of magic, relations with totalitarian regimes, on which drugs, and exotic travel. He hated the Christian he is worth quoting at length: fundamentalist world of his parents, their

Theosophical History VIII/2 85

Crowley felt attracted by the radicalism of by the Book of the Law. Pasi comments that the totalitarian political projects for two the parallels are not hard to explain, given the main reasons. The fi rst was what we have Nietzschian and social-Darwinist orientation described as “pragmatic.” Crowley thought that if it was the destiny of mankind to accept of both parties. As to the third totalitarian the message of Thelema as a new universal regime, Pasi tells the curious story of Crowley’s religion, this result would be achieved friendship with Walter Duranty, the Moscow more quickly if it could be entrusted to a correspondent of the New York Times from movement capable of sufficient influence 1922-1939, who was a communist sympathizer over the masses. But there was another, and, in consequence, the only Western journal- more profound reason. At certain moments, Crowley seems to have come to believe that ist with access to Stalin. Crowley was evidently his message was in a certain sense akin quizzing Duranty on the possibility that Russia, to that of Nazism and Bolshevism, for all having disburdened itself of Christianity, might their differences. The brutality and violence be fertile ground for Thelema. Duranty told of the radical political movements and the him in 1930 that the country was too secular totalitarian regimes seemed, in fact, in line at present, but invited him to come and see with the spirit of the new Aeon of Horus, the warrior-god with falcon head, and to for himself. Pasi comments that, at least in the correspond better with certain passages of 1920s, Crowley’s hopes were not so absurd, the Liber Legis than the liberal-democratic because all sorts of sects (Flagellants, Castra- tradition which, at bottom, still represented tors, etc.) were being encouraged, or at least the hated bourgeois mentality (86). tolerated, in order to harass the regime’s main opponent, the Russian Orthodox Church. It goes without saying that all of this was However, by 1930 all religious movements hopelessly unrealistic, but some of the many were being firmly suppressed, and Crowley details in Pasi’s account are worth sketching. traveled not to Russia but to Portugal. Crowley’s sympathy for the Italian regime of Marco Pasi devotes a long section of his Mussolini dissolved in 1923 when he and his book to Crowley’s friendship with the Portu- entourage were thrown out of his “Abbey of guese poet Fernando Pessoa, bringing in many Thelema” in Sicily. All hope from that quarter facts from Portuguese sources unknown to vanished with the Fascist Party’s 1929 Concordat previous biographers. Space forbids even a with the Catholic Church, for “The eradication summary of this here, except to say that a of the Christian church understandably seemed common interest in astrology and occultism to Crowley the indispensable condition for brought them together, and that Crowley’s propagating his own revelation.” (p. 89) As for perennial mission of Thelemitic propagation Hitler, Crowley had got the idea from reading seems to have coincided, for a while, with Hermann Rauschning’s spurious memoir Hitler Pessoa’s search for a link, through the O.T.O., Speaks (1939), that the Führer was much more with some ancient Templar tradition. interested in occultism than he in fact was, A chapter on Crowley’s “dangerous friend- and indeed that Hitler had been influenced ships” describes his relations with Duranty and

86 Book Review: Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica four other men: WWI tank expert General J. F. minded by the late Ellic Howe, historian C. Fuller, Socialist Member of Parliament Tom of esoteric orders). Crowley, who from the Driberg, the adventurer Gerald Hamilton, and start of WWII had conducted himself as a M.I.5 subdirector Maxwell Knight. These are perfect patriot, wrote to the Director of Naval fascinating episodes for anyone who enjoys Intelligence to offer his services in this capacity, spy stories (Knight), English eccentrics (Fuller but Fleming’s superiors evidently felt that and Hamilton), the unmasking of hypocrisy enough risks had been taken already, and the (Driberg), and insights into the disreputable interview never took place. Pasi points out, in regions behind the facade of politics (all fi ve). conclusion to this section, that whereas the The prize exhibit, however, is Pasi’s pulling- sensational literature makes Crowley a link together of the threads concerning Rudolf between supposed Nazi occultists and their Hess’s fl ight to Scotland in 1941, which ended British sympathizers, the facts are more banal: not, as Hess had hoped, with the negotiation of Crowley, like millions of others, was putting his a separate peace between Britain and Germany, expertise—peculiar as it was—at the service but with ignominy and life imprisonment. The of Churchill’s war. way Crowley fi ts into this is, briefl y, as follows. The last chapters of Pasi’s book are mainly Driberg, while still a student, wrote a fan concerned with conspiracy theory, as applied letter to Crowley which led to their friendship. to occultism in general and to Crowley in Driberg then introduced to Crowley Denis particular. Pasi points out that “Just as the Wheatley, who used the acquaintance to gather conspiratologists interpret every relevant material for his best-selling novels about event according to their scheme of conspiracy Satanism and the occult. Wheatley introduced (nothing occurring without an explanation that Crowley to his good friend Maxwell Knight, confi rms their theory), so Crowley interpreted another man fascinated by the occult, whose wars and revolutions as demonstrating the duties for M.I.5 consisted in counter-espionage, work of the Secret Chiefs, whose goal was especially infi ltrating groups sympathetic to the destruction of the present order and the the Nazis. Knight was, in turn, a fascinating substitution of the new order of the Aeon of fi gure to the young Ian Fleming, (creator of Horus” (165-166). Crowley in his turn became James Bond), who was working at the time a player in other peoples’ conspiratorial for Naval Intelligence. scenarios, fi rst in those of Monsignor Jouin and It was Fleming, apparently, who devised his Revue Internationale des Sociétés Secrètes, the audacious plan for luring Hess to England, which held that the O.T.O. was the ultimate and carried it off while his superiors turned a power behind the Judeo-Masonic plot; second, blind eye. Fleming then tried to have Crowley in those of the Italian police in the Fascist brought in to interview Hess, with the intention period, here published for the fi rst time from of finding out more about the Nazi leaders’ their archives; and lastly in René Guénon’s faith in astrology and the occult (incidentally, scheme of the “Counter-Initiation.” the subject of another “sting” operation, master- Guénon comes out of this investigation

Theosophical History VIII/2 87 as both paranoid and inaccurate. Beside his ‘. . .Een Kern van Broederschap. . .’: 100 fantasy of Crowley as Hitler’s counselor, he Jaar Theosofi sche Vereniging in Nederland, believed that the A.A. stood for “Atlantean 1897-1997. By Ruud Jansen. Pp. 227. Amster- Adepts,” attributed to Crowley a knighthood but dam: Uitgeverij der Theosofi sche Vereniging in denied him his authentic status as a Freemason, Nederland, 1997. ISBN 906175725. NLG(ilders) and suggested that the R.I.S.S. (see above), for 35. (hardcover). all its criticism of Crowley, was actually his secret collaborator, both being cohorts of the A s its title implies, this book describes the Counter-Initiation. Lastly, Pasi describes the A contribution of Dutch Theosophists to relations between Crowley and Julius Evola, the creation of the “universal brotherhood” the other dominant fi gure of the Traditionalist envisioned by one of the missions of the movement. Evola, as one might expect, was Theosophical Society. Focussed on the Nether- far less negative about Crowley than his lands Section of the Theosophical Society correspondent Guénon, and in later writings (Adyar), together with its antecedents and close and interviews allowed him the status, with affi liates, it gives little space to the defi nition some reservations, of a true initiate of the of Theosophy or to the history of the modern left-hand path. Theosophical movement in general (cf. chapter It can be seen even from this review that 1). Nevertheless, it pays enough attention to Pasi has packed an immense amount of facts, these matters so that the Dutch developments documentation, and informed commentary can be easily situated in the broader intellectual into his two hundred pages. If the Warburg and historical contexts by even non-specialist Institute needs justifi cation for their acceptance readers. of the Yorke Collection of Crowley letters Een Kern van Broederschap is clearly writ- and papers, it is here, in Pasi’s thorough and ten and attractively produced with numerous resourceful use of them. The book is a model illustrations. Its essential structure is thematic, of its kind, and one awaits with interest the but its thirty chapters are so arranged as to fruits of Pasi’s current research, as he subjects read in a roughly chronological order. This the elusive Beast to the rigors of a Sorbonne arrangement allows simultaneously for a quick dissertation. appreciation of the overall course of events as well as (via the table of contents, pp. 5-6) easy Joscelyn Godwin access to specifi c topics such as theosophical art, notable personalities, and various smaller * * * * * groups affi liated with the Netherlands Section. Chapters 2-10 cover the biographies and organizational activities of the leading early Dutch Theosophists. Chapters 11-14 concern the infl uential role played by Theosophists in the development of modern Dutch art. Most of

88 Book Review: Een Kern van Broederschap the remaining chapters deal with publications ed. R. Kranenborg (Religieuze Bewegingen and other programs designed to further the in Nederland, 25), Amsterdam, VU Uitgeverij, cause of Theosophy in the Netherlands and 1992, pp. 29-59. To that more critical account, its East Indian colony. Een Kern van Broederschap adds considerable The chapters on art are particularly good. detail, some of it perhaps of merely anecdotal Chapter 11 treats in detail the history of the interest but most of it undoubtedly valuable Vahana Lodge, a unique contribution made by to future scholarship. As complementary Dutch Theosophy not only to the international approaches to the same material, the works Theosophical movement but also to a consider- of Gibbels and Jansen are both enhanced by able enrichment of European aesthetic culture. a parallel reading, as is the understanding Its members worked out sophisticated theories of the reader. of Theosophical art, bringing these theories to Because of the notable success that orga- bear on the production of numerous artworks nized Theosophy encountered (and still enjoys) of striking beauty and aesthetic power. As art in the Netherlands, the Theosophical history teachers they also played a leading role in the of that country has particular signifi cance for reform of European art education. The impor- any student of that phenomenon. This book is tance of the contributions of Theosophists therefore recommended to all such readers. It such as J. L. M. Lauweriks and P. Mondria(a)n, belongs in all libraries with research collections to the evolution of modern western art can in Theosophy or Theosophical history, and hardly be overestimated; if anything, Jansen should be considered for all serious collections treats them with too much modesty. in the history of religion or Dutch culture. Despite a gentle disclaimer in the foreword (p. 7), Jansen’s book can only be regarded as Alfred Willis an offi cial publication and hence an offi cial Savannah, Georgia history of the Netherlands Section of the Theosophical Society. Because offi cial publica- * * * * * tions so often present a tendentious treat- ment of their subjects, Jansen’s objectivity is especially admirable. Controversial episodes he handles frankly, if with a certain blandness (e.g., the treatment in chapter 15 of the seces- sion of Krishnamurti from the Theosophical Society). The reporting of facts clearly takes precedence here over interpretation. For an interpretation of these facts in their socio- political and intellectual contexts, there remains the essay by M. Gibbels, “Mediums, Meesters en Astrale Vibraties” in Esoterie,

Theosophical History VIII/2 89

THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY: OCCASIONAL PAPERS (ISBN 1-883279-00-3) Editor: James A. Santucci

VOLUME I Witness for the Prosecution: Annie Besant’s Testimony on Behalf of H. P. Blavatsky in the N.Y. Sun/Coues Law Case Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME II Joan Grant: Winged Pharaoh By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME III Ammonius Saccas and His Eclectic Philosophy as Presented by Alexander Wilder By Dr. Jean-Louis Siémons

VOLUME IV W.T. Brown’s “Scenes in My Life” Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME V Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: Some Theosophical Perceptions By Govert Schüller

VOLUME VI Astral Projection or Liberation of the Double and the Work of the Early Theosophical Society By John Patrick Deveney

VOLUME VII Cyril Scott and a Hidden School: Towards the Peeling of an Onion By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME VIII Franz Hartmann’s “Some Fragments of the Secret History of the Theosophical Society” Introduction by Robert Hütwohl