"Superstitious and blind as it is, a faith conducted on such principles certainly deserves some respect, and can never be offensive, either to man or the true God.   Not so with that of the Roman Catholics; and hence, it is they, and secondarily, the Protestant clergy - with the exception of some foremost thinkers … Continue reading Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"For centuries have the Klikouchy, the Yourodevoy, and other miserable creatures been afflicted with strange disorders, which the Russian clergy and the populace attribute to possession by the devil. They throng the entrances of the cathedrals, without daring to trust themselves inside, lest their self-willed controlling demons might fling them on the ground.   Voroneg, … Continue reading Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"In 1864, the culmination of absurdity was attained when Pius IX excommunicated and fulminated publicly his anathemas against the Russian Emperor, as a "schismatic cast out from the bosom of the Holy Mother Church. Neither he nor his ancestors, nor Russia since it was Christianized, a thousand years ago, have ever consented to join the … Continue reading Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)

"The clergy of the three most prominent Christian bodies, the Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant, discountenance every spiritual phenomenon manifesting itself through the so-called "mediums".   A very brief period, indeed, has elapsed since both the two latter ecclesiastical corporations burned, hanged, and otherwise murdered every helpless victim through whose organism spirits - and sometimes … Continue reading Isis Unveiled: chapter I (an axiom of hermetic philosophy)