“”Observe well”, exclaims des Mousseaux, “that there are demons which sometimes will speak the truth.” “The exorcist”, he adds, quoting the Ritual, “must command the demon to tell him whether he is detained in the body of the demoniac through some magic art, or by signs, or any objects which usually serve for this evil practice. In case the exorcised person has swallowed the latter, he must vomit them back; and if they are not in his body, the demon must indicate the proper place where they are to be found; and having found them they must be burned.” Thus, some “demons reveal the existence of the bewitchment, tell who its author is, and indicate the means to destroy the malefice. But beware to ever resort, in such a case, to magicians, sorcerers, or mediums. You must call to help you but the minister of your Church!”
“The Church believes in magic, as you well see”, he adds, “since she expresses it so formally. And those who disbelieve in magic, can they still hope to share the faith of their own Church? And who can teach them better? To whom did Christ say: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world?'”
Are we to believe that he said this but to those who wear these black or scarlet liveries of Rome? Must we then credit the story that this power was given by Christ to Simon Stylites, the saint who sanctified himself by perching on a pillar, (stylos), sixty feet high, for thirty-six years of his life, without ever descending from it, in order that, among other miracles stated in the Golden Legend, he might cure a dragon or a sore eye?
“Near Simon’s pillar was the dwelling of a dragon, so very venomous that the stench was spread for mile round his cave.” This ophidian-hermit met with an accident; he got a thorn in his eye, and becoming blind, crept to the saint’s pillar, and pressed his eye against it for three days, without touching anyone. Then the blessed saint, from his aerial seat, “three feet in diameter”, ordered earth and water to be placed on the dragon’s eye, out of which suddenly emerged a thorn, (or stake), a cubit in length; when the people saw the “miracle” they glorified the Creator. As to the grateful dragon, he arose and, “having adored God for two hours, returned to his cave” – a half-converted ophidian, we must suppose.”
H. P. Blavatsky