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The spiritual magic proceeds directly from the inner being, and may also be divided into two kinds. In the first, man operates principally through his innate power, but not without the assistance of the element-spirits. In the second the operation depends almost entirely upon the element-spirits. To this species belongs the binding by words, of animals especially, in order that they do no damage; also the conjuring for the sick.

To the second division belongs solicitation from the element-spirits for rain, cold, &c. To obtain the end required, the object for which the solicitation is offered, whether a newly-born child, freshly sown seed, or newly-grafted tree, must be placed en rapport with the spirits of nature; and this is to be done by certain ceremonies. To call forth magical influence, peculiarities in food, dress, and demeanour must be observed: armlets of metal bearing the names of angels must also be worn. Then, with the entire strength of his will, must the magician, offering his sacrifices, especially incense, call upon the name of the spirits. The mixture of various metals increases the influence.

This so-called soothsaying widely differs from black magic, although it cannot be denied that natural magic. borders upon the world of night, since, through worship of nature, it more and more removes man from worship of the Divinity.

The worship of nature among the heathens, so long as it does not become dark and Satanic, being simply a materialized worship of the Supreme, does not prevent revelations reaching them from a higher world. The Cabbalah teaches that the heathen receive revelations and true dreams. It even maintains that, in general, the heathen are as capable of receiving the Holy Spirit as the Israelites. All depends upon the hearts and actions of men. According to the teaching of the Cabbalah, the heathen were not absolutely cast off by God, but rather conducted by Him unto these frontiers of nature. As we read in the words of Moses, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel." Deuteronomy, xxxii. 8. "And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun,

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and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven,"

Molitor adds, "that severe as is the Jewish law against the heathen, its severity is directed, not against the heathen who worship God under the form of the powers of nature, but against such as even without better knowledge have devoted themselves to diabolical services, and to the black art connected with it."

And severer still was the law against the Israelites who, as the chosen people, redeemed from the bondage of external nature, should fall back again into their blindness. It was even forbidden to the Israelites to plant trees around their Temple, because, according to Maimonides, trees attract the astral influences, and thus might lead to false exaltation.

The Cabbalah also teaches much regarding physical uncleanness-Tumah-which it maintains to be a consequence of the Fall. Tumah is divided into two principal classes. There is coarse uncleanness, which is an abomination before God, and a yet subtler one which causes a dimness in the soul. The nearer that man approaches sacred things, the more lively becomes his sensibility to this dimness, as may be seen in the instance of the priests. With external things it is also the same. The more closely man assimilates himself to them, the more susceptible he becomes for the Tumah. Those organic things which come most into contact with his physical frame, are more liable to become unclean than objects which are more remote and have less affinity with him. The human corpse, according to this law, is far more unclean than the dead bodies of beasts. Man being the most highly organized creature, in his decay the most revolting decay takes place. The later Talmudists, therefore, declare that a far higher degree of uncleanness exists in the corpses of holy men than in the corpses of unholy.

Still more important conclusions may be drawn from the spiritual Tumah. Sin, says the Cabbalah, causes, not alone imperfection in the image of man formed after the divine image, but extends itself throughout nature, and even ascends into the region of angels, and to the divine presence.

Thus is the Sch'chinach violated (Plato's Divine Idealworld-J. Böhme's Sophia) and transformed into gloom and severity. The Divinity turns aside His countenance from such of His children as are unadorned with good works: the divine influence reaches them but rarely, and they must be punished by severe suffering. This causes sorrow and suffering, even to the Divinity, as was already prophesied of the Messias, who, in order gradually to reanimate the fallen, let his light shine in the darkness, and raised up men even against their wills, and prepared them for inward freedom, but in no sudden or violent manner.

Through sin, man not alone has caused suffering to the Divinity, but throughout the universe,-especially in this our world, Asiah-where nature is become full of dissonances, and all creation sighs beneath the curse of Adam's

sin.

Man returning in penitence, God, together with the guardian angels, is ever ready to aid him in the contest with sin, and in the same degree that man desires goodness does he attract God's influence, and the darkness is changed into light, and severity into mercy.

Idolatry, murder, and immorality, are the three chief divisions of moral uncleanness. Those unnatural unions which are spoken of in the Old Testament are to be regarded as belonging to this species of uncleanness. Seething the kid in its mother's milk; the yoking together the ox and the ass; the planting near to each other of trees of adverse natures. The Cabbalah observes, with reference to forbidden marriages between near of kin, that in such unions an unnatural evolution takes place, the branches being as it were bent back towards the root instead of spreading widely from the tree.

Speaking of the contagious power of evil, the Cabbalah says, "as physical disease streams forth from men, so does the uncleanness of the soul ever magically stream forth, possessing a power of contamination, not alone for men, but for external things. From this proceeds the repulsion felt by the pure in the presence of the wicked; a repulsion the more keenly experienced, the higher is the purity. Each evil deed, each impure word, is thus possessed of a magical existence, which renders unclean all around it. In a land

where great crime is rife, all things, houses, furniture, beasts, plants, the very earth and air, are corrupted." Thus, when a city gives itself up to idolatry, must it be utterly destroyed with fire and sword, man and beast, and never more be rebuilt.

Equally strong with the laws against Tumah, are the laws against magic. According to the Bible, the Talmud and the Cabbalah magic is divided into three classes: the first as an abomination to be punished, like idolatry, with death; the second, with scourging; and, for the third, no punishment is ordained, but it is pronounced wrong, as leading from reliance upon God.

The first class includes all evil enchantments and magical cures, the citation of evil spirits, and the calling forth the dead through the aid of demons. The invoker of the dead is alone condemned to death; the questioner of the dead to scourging. According to Moses, it is simply forbidden to practise magic, not to be acquainted with the art, or to study it; since the members of the Sanhedrin (Molitor, p. 328) must have been acquainted with magic before being able to pass judgment upon it..

The second class includes that magic which is produced through the agency of the lower and evil spirits of nature, by which means man is often led astray, and sunk into eternal darkness.

The third class, although not so strictly forbidden, is nevertheless pronounced unfit for the pious Israelites; and this is astrology. According to the Talmud and Cabbalah the stars have as great an influence upon man as upon the whole of nature: for the constellations presiding at the birth of a child determine its physical and mental qualities.

Intercourse with the so-called spirits of nature belongs also to this class. And these spirits were all designated Schedim,-‚—a name also borne by evil demons; but these spirits must not be confounded with Satanic beings.

These extracts from Molitor's writings are sufficient to give the contents of the Cabbalah with regard to magic, which it treats of in all its ramifications, containing that which became Christian mysticism, and the magic of the Middle Ages. Also it contains much regarding what we now designate animal magnetism.

In conclusion, I give, from Molitor's Appendix, a story regarding a Jewess who was possessed by an evil spirit.

"In the time of Loriah there was a widow, into whom a Ruach (spirit) had entered, and to whom he had occasioned much distress. People went to her and received answers from her to the questions which they asked. The relatives of the woman went to Loriah, and besought him to drive forth the spirit from the woman. Loriah despatched his scholar, R. Chaim Vital, giving him certain holy names by which to cast forth the spirit, and instructing him what he should do. Also he commanded him to speak Nidui and Cherem, the lesser and greater ban, and to drive forth the Ruach with violence. When R. Chaim came to the woman, she turned away her face. R. Chaim asked "wherefore dost thou turn away ?" The Ruach gave answer: "I cannot look thee in the face!" Then commanded R. Chaim that he should turn round. Vital demanded "who he was?" And the spirit related his evil life, declaring that he had been a Jew, had wandered five-and-twenty years through the earth, and was pursued by three angels of destruction. Vital demanded "who had given him permission to enter into the woman?" The Ruach answered, "I was in the house when the woman arose, and was about to kindle the fire. The tinder would not catch, and she became angry, and in rage flung the flint and steel out of her hands, crying Go to Satan! This word Satan gave me permission Although the woman had sinned in unbelief, and did not believe in the Flight into Egypt, still the Ruach had no power over her until, in her anger, she pronounced the name of Satan."

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to enter into her."

Vol. iii.
Vol. iii. p. 646.

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