Devil-Worship in France | Page 4

and pretending to
an acquaintance with more effectual thaumaturgic processes than those
which obtain at séances. The account passed unchallenged, for in the
absence of more explicit information, it seemed scarcely worth while to
draw attention to the true character of the claim. The secret ritual in
question could not have been unknown to specialists in magical
literature, and was certainly to myself among these; as a fact, it was one
of those numerous clavicles of the goëtic art which used to circulate
surreptitiously in manuscript some two centuries ago. There is no doubt
that the planetary spirits with which the document was concerned were
devils in the intention of its author, and must have been evoked as such,
supposing that the process was practised. The French association was
not therefore in possession of a secret source of knowledge, but as
impositions of this kind are to be à priori expected in such cases by
transcendentalists of any experience, I for one refrained from entering
any protest at the time.
Much about the same period it became evident that a marked change
had passed over certain aspects of thought in "the most enlightened city
of the world," and that among the jeunesse dorée, in particular, there
was a strong revulsion against paramount material philosophy; an
epoch of transcendental and mystic feeling was, in fact, beginning. Old
associations, having transcendental objects, were in course of revival,
or were coming into renewed prominence. Martinists, Gnostics,
Kabbalists, and a score of orders or fraternities of which we vaguely
hear about the period of the French Revolution, began to manifest great
activity; periodicals of a mystical tendency--not spiritualistic, not

neo-theosophical, but Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and theurgic--were
established, and met with success; books which had grievously
weighted the shelves of their publishers for something like a quarter of
a century were suddenly in demand, and students of distinction on this
side of the channel were attracted towards the new centre. The interest
was intelligible to professed mystics; the doctrine of transcendentalism
has never had but one adversary, which is the density of the intellectual
subject, and wherever the subject clarifies, there is idealism in
philosophy and mysticism in religion. Moreover, on the part of mystics,
especially here in England, the way of that revival had been prepared
carefully, and there could be no astonishment that it came, and none,
too, that it was accompanied, as it is accompanied almost invariably, by
much that does not belong to it in the way of transcendental phenomena.
When, therefore, the rumours of Black Magic, diabolism, and the abuse
of occult forces began to circulate, there was little difficulty in
attributing some foundation to the report.
A distinguished man of letters, M. Huysman, who has passed out of
Zolaism in the direction of transcendental religion, is, in a certain sense,
the discoverer of modern Satanism. Under the thinnest disguise of
fiction, he gives in his romance of La Bas, an incredible and
untranslatable picture of sorcery, sacrilege, black magic, and nameless
abominations, secretly practised in Paris. Possessing a brilliant
reputation, commanding a wide audience, and with a psychological
interest attaching to his own personality, which more than literary
excellence infuses a contagious element into private views and
impressions, he has given currency to the Question of Lucifer, has
promoted it from obscurity into prominence, and has made it the vogue
of the moment. It is true that, by his vocation of novelist, he is
suspected of inventing his facts, and Dr "Papus," president of the
influential Martinist group in French occultism, states quite plainly that
the doors of the mystic fraternities have been closed in his face, so that
he can know nothing, and his opinions are consequently indifferent. I
have weighed these points carefully, but unless the mystic fraternities
are connected with diabolism, which Papus would most rightly deny,
the exclusion does not remove the opportunity of first-hand knowledge
concerning the practice of Satanism, and, "brilliant imagination" apart,

M. Huysman has proved quite recently that he is in mortal earnest by
his preface to a historical treatise on "Satanism and Magic," the work of
a literary disciple, Jules Bois. In a criticism, which for general
soberness and lucidity does not leave much to be desired, he there
affirms that a number of persons, not specially distinguished from the
rest of the world by the mark of the beast in their foreheads, are
"devoted in secret to the operations of Black Magic, communicate or
seek to communicate with Spirits of Darkness, for the attainment of
ambition, the accomplishment of revenge, the satisfaction of their
passions, or some other form of ill-doing." He affirms also that there
are facts which cannot be concealed and from which only one
deduction can be made, namely, that the existence of Satanism is
undeniable.
To understand the