The morning call., 1893-01-15
IN OCCULT REALMS
Aftermath of Blavatsky
and Besant.
SUNDRY STRANGE STORIES.
A Little Lecture on TranscendentaI
Philosophy With a Few Suggestive
Facts-What Occultism Is.

Some twenty years ago, having wearied
Of classics and geometry, | applied myself
to discover II there were anything in the
explorations on the borderland of science,
which then attracted considerable attention
in the scientific world. Those were the
days of Kate King and S. c. Foster, of as
trail lights and spirits galore.
Mrs. Besant, who has just left San Fran
cisco. was then little novice in the ex-
periences of the wide, wide world, and
Nine. Blavatsky had scarcely yet reduced
her researches into the occult realms intU
books and mahatmas and earthly fame l
think it was in 1875 that she began TO do so.
have carefully watched the career of
both these masterful women. and. while l
pay homage to their splendid genius, 1.-THE
Greater and the Lesser Light" l think l
can See how they have missed somehow the
true Arcanum celestium, as old Sweden
borg would have said, the point being the
universally of mind.
At the same time these women are en-
titled to all the credit which the world has
tardily conceded to intellectual pioneers
Any man who has devoted his best gifts
OF mind to the subject of occultIsm and who
has burned the midnight oil in search of
knowledge cannot help agreeing with the
sage of Scripture that there is nothing new
under the sun.
Twenty years before Nine. Blavatsky
astOnished the world with Isis Unveiled"
and long before theosophy became name
to conJure with master mind had paved
the way for the revelation, and he In turn
had been preceded by many other men who
had discerned what is now spoken Of as the
astral light" shedding its rays through the
darkness of superstition. The astral light
AZ In ba
DAYS of '93.
Wesley said that the Bible stood or fell
with witchcraft, and those Of US who laugh
at Cotton Mather are forced into an ugly
corner when we seek TO explain away the
Mosaic law, Thou shalt not suffer witch
to live" and ask what manner of incanta-
ton 1t was that enabled Sedekla, the witch
OF Endor. to raise up the ghost OF Samuel
before the eyes of Saul, the king. And
Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou dis
guleted me. to bring me up?s
Theologians have relegated to the Apoc-
rypha The corresponding story OF the calling
up Of The holy spirit of a young youth
whose name was DanieP' in connection
with the episode of Susanna and the elders
II believe" wrote Sir Thomas Browne,
the author of the Religio Medici Hydro
taphia and score of famous works. that
the blessed spirits are not at rest in the
grave. but wander s0llcitous Of the affairs
OF the world. The world that l regard is
myself; it is the microcosm of my own
frame that can cast mine eyes on: for the
other use it, but like my globe, and turn it
round sometimes for my recreation. That
mass OF flesh that circumscribes me limits
not my mind. Whilst l study to find how
am microc0sm or little world, find my
self sometimes more than the great There
Is surely piece OF divinity in us-some-
thing that was before the heavens, and owes
no homage unto the sum-"
The astral light. of which SO much has
been said in the new story:of theosophy, is
literally as old as the hills. 1t is as old at
all events as The illumination of the face
OF Moses on the mount, as old as the martyr
stephen. 1t is as new as the transforma-
ton which the face Of the true actor UNDER
goes in moments of eyaltation or ecstacy.
Now this is no. question Of Mrs. Besant
or Nine. Blavatsky or Colonel Olcott, or
any man or woman seeking fame molly or
ign0bly. but OF want deep-s -te@
human mind and the human
at the risk of absolute pain
| pointment most persons are
,,ny.effort TO bridge over u