The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-07

ciferianism, with it's weird ceremonies
and 'sblack Masses
BY some the Satanists proper are
thought to be an offshoot of the gnos-
ticism which f1ourished in the early
centuries of the Christian era NM.
Huysmans and Bots cited many blood
curdling anecdotes instancing the
lengths to which the alleged Satanists
of France will go in their hatred of
Christianity. One of the most striking
stories related to the dissertation of
nine churches in the lie Maurice on a
March night in 1895, the tabernacles
being demolished and the sacred waters
stolen. The supposition is that the wa
fers were taken for the purpose of
utilizing them in the rites of black
magic. Whether or not it can be def
nitely proved that Satanism a cult
still exists in France, it is certainly to
be found today in Asia Minor, accord
ing to the testimony of an English
traveller who secured entrance to the
inner temple of the devil worShipers
where the sacred book of the creed is
kept. These Satanists, who are said to
be in other respects highly civilized,
are known as the YeZidis and are to
be found in Mesopotania- Their chief
is called the ''kak'' is accredited with
possessing supernatural powers and is
also revered as the incarnation of the
angel Reziel.
Oriental mysticism, of which this is
but a Grass outgrowth, has of late
years been exercising a strong inf1u-
ence over the western mind and has
been responsible for the birth of some
very extraordinary cults, not few of
| which may truly be said to be devoid
of charlatanism. Theosophy, for ex-
ample. may be reckoned among the sin
cere cults followed in America today,
although Nine Blavatsky, with whose
name the term 'theosophy'' was so long
| associated in the public mind, did much
to discredit it. The Blavatsky may be
| regarded as one of the most remarka BILE
women of the nineteenth century. She
was born in 1881 in a south Russian
town bearing the euphonious name of
Yekaterinoslav and first attracted at
tention by her statement that she had
penetrated into Tibet had met and
communed with the mahatmas of the
Himalayas and had been initiated into
| the mysteries of their occultism. Her
fame spread speedily, and she was Ii
onized by the most select circles of Eu-
rope. In 1873 she came to the United
| States from Europe and two years lat
er established the TheosophicaI society
About four years afterward branch OF
|
| 1884, SO great was the furore concern
ing the clever Russian that the Society
For Psychical Research undertook tc
investigate her claims, with the result
that her miraculous pretensions were
! discredited. Undoubtedly, however she
| contributed not a little toward popular
| izing the tenets of Buddhistic philoso-
ply both among foreigners and natives
of India itself.
| Vedantism is another oriental cult
| that has found its way to the western
hemisphere, its most notable exponent
! in the United States today being the
swami Abhedananda, cultured, pol
| ished Hindoo of magnetic personality
In this the most orthodox of the six
orthodox Brahmanica1 philosophers an
| idealistic monism is methodically work
| ed out the central idea being the re-
| lease of the soul from it's corporal
bondage and the escape from the neces-
| sity of rebirth, the passage of the soul
from one bodily form to another. We
| lantism is essentially esoteric but it
| has an exoteric side offering a popular
! religious explanation of the universe