Bygone Beliefs H. Stanley Redgrove Bygone Beliefs Table of Contents Bygone Beliefs............................................................................................................................................................1 H. Stanley Redgrove......................................................................................................................................1 PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................1 I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT..................................................................2 II. PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY.............................................................................................4 III. MEDICINE AND MAGIC....................................................................................................................10 IV. SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING BIRDS.........................................................................................13 V. THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION..................................18 VI. THE BELIEF IN TALISMANS............................................................................................................21 VII. CEREMONIAL MAGIC IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.................................................................32 VIII. ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLISM...................................................................................................41 IX. THE QUEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE..............................................................................45 X. THE PHALLIC ELEMENT IN ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE..............................................................54 XI. ROGER BACON: AN APPRECIATION.............................................................................................66 XII. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS....................................................................................................70 i Bygone Beliefs H. Stanley Redgrove This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • PREFACE • I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT • II. PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY • III. MEDICINE AND MAGIC • IV. SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING BIRDS • V. THE POWDER OF SYMPATHY: A CURIOUS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION • VI. THE BELIEF IN TALISMANS • VII. CEREMONIAL MAGIC IN THEORY AND PRACTICE • VIII. ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLISM • IX. THE QUEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE • X. THE PHALLIC ELEMENT IN ALCHEMICAL DOCTRINE • XI. ROGER BACON: AN APPRECIATION • XII. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS BYGONE BELIEFS BEING A SERIES OF EXCURSIONS IN THE BYWAYS OF THOUGHT BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE _Alle Erfahrung ist Magic, und nur magisch erklarbar_. NOVALIS (Friedrich von Hardenberg). Everything possible to be believ'd is an image of truth. WILLIAM BLAKE. TO MY WIFE PREFACE THESE Excursions in the Byways of Thought were undertaken at different times and on different occasions; consequently, the reader may be able to detect in them inequalities of treatment. He may feel that I have lingered too long in some byways and hurried too rapidly through others, taking, as it were, but a general view of the road in the latter case, whilst examining everything that could be seen in the former with, perhaps, undue care. As a matter of fact, how ever, all these excursions have been undertaken with one and the same object in view, that, namely, of understanding aright and appreciating at their true worth some of the more curious byways along which human thought has travelled. It is easy for the superficial thinker to dismiss much of the thought of the past (and, indeed, of the present) as _mere_ superstition, not worth the trouble of investigation: but it is not scientific. There is a reason for every belief, even the most fantastic, and it should be our object to discover this reason. How Bygone Beliefs 1 Bygone Beliefs far, if at all, the reason in any case justifies us in holding a similar belief is, of course, another question. Some of the beliefs I have dealt with I have treated at greater length than others, because it seems to me that the truths of which they are the images−− vague and distorted in many cases though they be−−are truths which we have either forgotten nowadays, or are in danger of forgetting. We moderns may, indeed, learn something from the thought of the past, even in its most fantastic aspects. In one excursion at least, namely, the essay on "The Cambridge Platonists," I have ventured to deal with a higher phase−−perhaps I should say the highest phase−− of the thought of a bygone age, to which the modern world may be completely debtor. "Some Characteristics of Mediaeval Thought," and the two essays on Alchemy, have appeared in _The Journal of the Alchemical Society_. In others I have utilised material I have contributed to _The Occult Review_, to the editor of which journal my thanks are due for permission so to do. I have also to express my gratitude to the Rev. A. H. COLLINS, and others to be referred to in due course, for permission here to reproduce illustrations of which they are the copyright holders. I have further to offer my hearty thanks to Mr B. R. ROWBOTTOM and my wife for valuable assistance in reading the proofs. H. S. R. BLETCHLEY, BUCKS, _December_ 1919. I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT IN the earliest days of his upward evolution man was satisfied with a very crude explanation of natural phenomena−−that to which the name "animism" has been given. In this stage of mental development all the various forces of Nature are personified: the rushing torrent, the devastating fire, the wind rustling the forest leaves−−in the mind of the animistic savage all these are personalities, spirits, like himself, but animated by motives more or less antagonistic to him. I suppose that no possible exception could be taken to the statement that modern science renders animism impossible. But let us inquire in exactly what sense this is true. It is not true that science robs natural phenomena of their spiritual significance. The mistake is often made of supposing that science explains, or endeavours to explain, phenomena. But that is the business of philosophy. The task science attempts is the simpler one of the correlation of natural phenomena, and in this effort leaves the ultimate problems of metaphysics untouched. A universe, however, whose phenomena are not only capable of some degree of correlation, but present the extraordinary degree of harmony and unity which science makes manifest in Nature, cannot be, as in animism, the product of a vast number of inco−ordinated and antagonistic wills, but must either be the product of one Will, or not the product of will at all. The latter alternative means that the Cosmos is inexplicable, which not only man's growing experience, but the fact that man and the universe form essentially a unity, forbid us to believe. The term "anthropomorphic" is too easily applied to philosophical systems, as if it constituted a criticism of their validity. For if it be true, as all must admit, that the unknown can only be explained in terms of the known, then the universe must either be explained in terms of man−−_i.e_. in terms of will or desire−− or remain incomprehensible. That is to say, a philosophy must either be anthropomorphic, or no philosophy at all. Thus a metaphysical scrutiny of the results of modern science leads us to a belief in God. But man felt the need of unity, and crude animism, though a step in the right direction, failed to satisfy his thought, long before the days of modern science. The spirits of animism, however, were not discarded, but were modified, co−ordinated, and worked into a system as servants of the Most High. Polytheism may mark a stage in this process; or, perhaps, it was a result of mental degeneracy. What I may term systematised as distinguished from crude animism persisted throughout the Middle Ages. The work of systematisation had already been accomplished, to a large extent, by the Neo−Platonists and whoever I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDAEVAL THOUGHT 2 Bygone Beliefs were responsible for the Kabala. It is true that these main sources of magical or animistic philosophy remained hidden during the greater part of the Middle Ages; but at about their close the youthful and enthusiastic CORNELIUS AGRIPPA (1486−1535)[1] slaked his thirst thereat and produced his own attempt at the systematisation of magical belief in the famous _Three Books of Occult Philosophy_. But the waters of magical philosophy reached the mediaeval mind through various devious channels, traditional on the one hand and literary on the other. And of the latter, the works of pseudo−DIONYSIUS,[2] whose immense influence upon mediaeval thought has sometimes been neglected, must certainly be noted. [1] The story of his life has been admirably told by HENRY MORLEY (2 vols., 1856). [2] These writings were first heard of in the early part of the sixth century, and were probably the work of a Syrian monk of that date, who fathered them on to DIONYSIUS the Areopagite as a pious fraud. See Dean INGE'S _Christian Mysticism_ (1899), pp. 104−−122, and VAUGHAN'S _Hours with the Mystics_ (7th ed., 1895), vol. i. pp. 111−124. The books have been translated into English by the Rev. JOHN PARKER (2 vols. 1897−1899), who believes in the genuineness of their alleged authorship. The most obvious example of a mediaeval animistic belief is that in "elementals"−−the spirits which personify the primordial forces of Nature, and are