Category: Isis Unveiled: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"For our part, when we realize that a pentacle is a synthetic figure which expresses in concrete form a profound truth of nature, we can see nothing more ridiculous in it than the figures of Euclid, and nothing half so comical as the symbols in a modern work on chemistry. What to the uninitiated reader [...]

"ALCHYMIST. Thou always speakest riddles. Tell me if thou art that fountain of which Bernard Lord Trevigan writ? MERCURY. I am not that fountain, but I am the water. The fountain compasseth me about." - SANDIVOGIUS, New Light of Alchymy. All that we profess to do is this; to find out the secrets of the [...]

"Like attracts like, they say; thus, according to the mood in which our astral form oozes out during the hours of sleep, according to our thoughts, pursuits, and daily occupations, all of which are fairly impressed upon the plastic capsule called the human soul, the latter attracts around itself spiritual beings congenial to itself. Hence [...]

"The Chaldeans, whom Cicero counts among the oldest magicians, placed the basis of all magic in the inner powers of man's soul, and by the discernment of magic properties in plants, minerals, and animals. By the aid of these they performed the most wonderful "miracles". Magic, with them, was synonymous with religion and science. It [...]

""Another had a bow and about fifty steel-pointed arrows. He shot an arrow into the air, when lo! The arrow became fixed in space at a considerable height. Another and another arrow was sent off, each fixing itself in the shaft of the preceding, until all formed a chain of arrows in the air, excepting [...]

"As we always like to strengthen our arguments by testimonies other than our own, it may be well to present the opinion of a daily paper, the Boston Herald, as to phenomena in general and mediums in particular. Having encountered sad failures with some dishonest persons, who may or may not be mediumistic, the writer [...]

"If we were to give a full description of the various manifestations which take place among adepts in India and other countries, we might fill volumes, but this would be profitless, as there would remain no space for explanation. Therefore we select in preference such as either find their parallels in modern phenomena or are [...]

"As to the statement found in medical books that there are frequent cases of inhumation while the subjects are but in a cataleptic state, and the persistent denials of specialists that such things happen, except very rarely, we have but to turn to the daily press of every country to find the horrid fact substantiated. [...]

"The same thing happened, however, night after night; the soldiers declaring that the toll-bar at their station near the bridge would rise of itself, and the spectral equipage sweep by them despite their efforts to stop it. At the same time every night, the coach would rumble into the courtyard of the house; the watchers, [...]

"And now, before parting with this repulsive subject of vampirism, we will give one more illustration, without other voucher than the statement that it was given to us by apparently trustworthy witnesses. About the beginning of the present century, there occurred in Russia, one of the most frightful cases of vampirism on record. The governor [...]