Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theologyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
The phenomena of the mystic odors and music, exhibited by Roger Bacon,
have been often observed in our own time. To say nothing of our
personal experience, we are informed by English correspondents of the
Theosophical Society that they have heard strains of the most ravishing
music, coming from no visible instrument, and inhaled a succession of
delightful odors produced, as they believed, by spirit-agency. One
correspondent tells us that so powerful was one of these familiar
odors—that of sandal-wood—that the house would be impregnated with
it for weeks after the seance. The medium in this case was a member
of a private family, and the experiments were all made within the
domestic circle. Another describes what he calls a “_musical_ rap.”
The potencies that are now capable of producing these phenomena must
have existed and been equally efficacious in the days of Roger Bacon.
As to the apparitions, it suffices to say that they are evoked now
in spiritualistic circles, and guarantied by scientists, and their
evocation by Roger Bacon is thus made more probable than ever.
Baptista Porta, in his treatise on _Natural Magic_, enumerates a
whole catalogue of secret formulæ for producing extraordinary effects
by employing the occult powers of nature. Although the “magicians”
believed as firmly as our spiritualists in a world of invisible
spirits, none of them claimed to produce his effects under their
control or through their sole help. They knew too well how difficult
it is to keep away the elementary creatures when they have once found
the door wide open. Even the magic of the ancient Chaldeans was but
a profound knowledge of the powers of simples and minerals. It was
only when the theurgist desired _divine_ help in spiritual and earthly
matters that he sought direct communication through religious rites,
with pure spiritual beings. With them, even, those spirits who remain
invisible and communicate with mortals through their awakened inner
senses, as in clairvoyance, clairaudience and trance, could only be
evoked _subjectively_ and as a result of purity of life and prayer. But
all physical phenomena were produced simply by applying a knowledge of
natural forces, although certainly not by the method of legerdemain,
practiced in our days by conjurers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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