Part 8 (1/2)
(1) The late Sir WILLIAM CROOKES' _Experimental Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism_ contains evidence in favour of the reality of this phenomenon very difficult to gainsay.
Pseudo-DIONYSIUS cla.s.sified the angels into three hierarchies, each subdivided into three orders, as under:--
_First Hierarchy_.--Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones;
_Second Hierarchy_.--Dominions, Powers, and Authorities (or Virtues);
_Third Hierarchy_.--Princ.i.p.alities, Archangels, and Angels,--
and this cla.s.sification was adopted by AGRIPPA and others.
Pseudo-DIONYSIUS explains the names of these orders as follows: ”... the holy designation of the Seraphim denotes either that they are kindling or burning; and that of the Cherubim, a fulness of knowledge or stream of wisdom.... The appellation of the most exalted and pre-eminent Thrones denotes their manifest exaltation above every grovelling inferiority, and their super-mundane tendency towards higher things;...
and their invariable and firmly-fixed settlement around the veritable Highest, with the whole force of their powers.... The explanatory name of the Holy Lords.h.i.+ps (Dominions) denotes a certain unslavish elevation... superior to every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to every subserviency, and elevated above every dissimularity, ever aspiring to the true Lords.h.i.+p and source of Lords.h.i.+p.... The appellation of the Holy Powers denotes a certain courageous and unflinching virility... vigorously conducted to the Divine imitation, not forsaking the G.o.dlike movement through its own unmanliness, but unflinchingly looking to the super-essential and powerful-making power, and becoming a powerlike image of this, as far as is attainable....The appellation of the Holy Authorities... denotes the beautiful and unconfused good order, with regard to Divine receptions, and the discipline of the super-mundane and intellectual authority... conducted indomitably, with good order towards Divine things.... (And the appellation) of the Heavenly Princ.i.p.alities manifests their princely and leading function, after the Divine example....”(1) There is a certain grandeur in these views, and if we may be permitted to understand by the orders of the hierarchy, ”discrete” degrees (to use SWEDENBORG'S term) of spiritual reality--stages in spiritual involution,--we may see in them a certain truth as well. As I said, all virtue, power, and knowledge which man has from G.o.d was believed to descend to him by way of these angelical hierarchies, step by step; and thus it was thought that those of the lowest hierarchy alone were sent from heaven to man. It was such beings that white magic pretended to evoke. But the practical occultists, when they did not make them altogether fatuous, attributed to these angels characters not distinguishable from those of the devils. The description of the angels in the _Heptemeron_, or _Magical Elements_,(2) falsely at may be taken as fairly characteristic. Of MICHAEL and the other spirits of Sunday he writes: ”Their nature is to procure Gold, Gemmes, Carbuncles, Riches; to cause one to obtain favour and benevolence; to dissolve the enmities of men; to raise men to honors; to carry or take away infirmities.” Of GABRIEL and the other spirits of Monday, he says: ”Their nature is to give silver; to convey things from place to place; to make horses swift, and to disclose the secrets of persons both present and future.” Of SAMAEL and the other spirits of Tuesday he says: ”Their nature is to cause wars, mortality, death and combustions; and to give two thousand Souldiers at a time; to bring death, infirmities or health,” and so on for RAPHAEL, SACHIEL, ANAEL, Ca.s.sIEL, and their colleagues.(1b)
(1) _On the Heavenly Hierarchy_. See the Rev. JOHN PARKER'S translation of _The Works of_ DIONYSIUS _the Areopagite_, vol. ii. (1889), pp. 24, 25, 31, 32, and 36.
(2) The book, which first saw the light three centuries after its alleged author's death, was translated into English by ROBERT TURNER, and published in 1655 in a volume containing the spurious _Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy_, attributed to CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, and other magical works. It is from this edition that I quote.
(1b) _Op. cit_., pp. 90, 92, and 94.
Concerning the evil planetary spirits, the spurious _Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy_, attributed to CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, informs us that the spirits of Saturn ”appear for the most part with a tall, lean, and slender body, with an angry countenance, having four faces; one in the hinder part of the head, one on the former part of the head, and on each side nosed or beaked: there likewise appeareth a face on each knee, of a black s.h.i.+ning colour: their motion is the moving of the wince, with a kinde of earthquake: their signe is white earth, whiter than any Snow.”
The writer adds that their ”particular forms are,--
A King having a beard, riding on a Dragon.
An Old man with a beard.
An Old woman leaning on a staffe.
A Hog.
A Dragon.
An Owl.
A black Garment.
A Hooke or Sickle.
A Juniper-tree.”
Concerning the spirits of Jupiter, he says that they ”appear with a body sanguine and cholerick, of a middle stature, with a horrible fearful motion; but with a milde countenance, a gentle speech, and of the colour of Iron. The motion of them is flas.h.i.+ngs of Lightning and Thunder; their signe is, there will appear men about the circle, who shall seem to be devoured of Lions,” their particular forms being--
”A King with a Sword drawn, riding on a Stag.
A Man wearing a Mitre in long rayment.
A Maid with a Laurel-Crown adorned with Flowers.
A Bull.
A Stag.
A Peac.o.c.k.
An azure Garment.
A Sword.