The following is a free translation from a French rendering of some important passages from the new book Mme. H. P. Blavatsky is now finishing in London, and entitled "The Secret Doctrine." Our translation has not been revised by the author, so that she must not be held accountable for any possible small errors that may have crept in through such double filtering: but the general sense is in strict accord with her views expressed long ago to us, and we feel warranted in saying that any errors are only verbal and not substantive. It was not thought necessary, either, to give the long quotations respecting Keeley's claims, as these are well known in this country.
"Every student of occultism knows that sound is one of the most formidable of occult powers: one whose least exercise, by an occultist, is productive of results a hundred thousand fold greater than all the electricity that could be produced even by such a waterfall as Niagara. It is possible to produce a sound capable of lifting in air the Pyramid of Cheops: or of bringing back to life, and inspiring with renewed vigor, one who is at the very point of death.
"For sound comprises the elements of a species of ozone whose production is beyond the powers of Chemistry, but appertains to those of Alchemy. This ozone can recall a man to life, provided that the Astral, or vital, body has not been irrevocably separated from the physical body, by the severance of the odic or magnetic tie which unites them. The Author ought to know something about this by personal experience, having been snatched from the jaws of death, on three separate occasions, thanks to this power.
"In the opinion of occultists, Mr. Keeley is on the threshold of one of the greatest secrets of the universe: a secret upon which depends the whole mystery of physical forces, as well as the esoteric meanings of the egg of the world. Occult philosophy regarding the manifested and the non manifested Cosmos as forming a unity, it follows that the ideal conception of the first is symbolically expressed by this 'golden egg,' which has two poles.
"It is the positive pole that exerts itself in the manifested world of matter; while the negative pole loses itself in the absolute unknowable, the Sat.
"This, however, cannot be the doctrine of Mr. Keeley, since he believes in a personal God. However, his ideas about the etheric, material constitution of the universe bear a striking likeness to ours: in fact, they are almost identical.
"But Mr. Keeley's inter-etheric centre is not exactly the centre of laya of the Eastern Occultists. The former can be produced at will, as has been proved by the phenomena of the Astral bells:(1) but the centre of laya cannot be produced by human will.
"If we are unwilling to accept the explanation that Mr. Keeley gives us — one which, from the occultist point of view, is perfectly orthodox, except for some obscurities of language — what answer will official science make to facts which it is impossible to deny? Occult philosophy only discloses its sacred mysteries one at a time. It drops them, like precious pearls, from time to time, during the course of the centuries, and only at those epochs which are marked by the movement of the rising wave of Evolution which bears humanity slowly, silently, but surely towards the birth of the sixth race. For once having passed out of the possession of their legitimate guardians, these mysteries cease to be occult: they fall into possession of the public, and run the risk of becoming in the hands of egoists — the Cains of the human race — curses, instead of the blessings that they formerly were.
"However, when men like Mr. Keeley are born, endowed with special mental and psychic powers, they are, as a general rule, aided by the guardians of the occult; since if they were left to their own resources, they would advance but slowly, and would soon become martyrs of their discoveries, or victims of less scrupulous speculations. But they are never thus aided except upon the express condition that they shall never, whether consciously or unconsciously, become a new peril to the humanity of their century, one more danger to the poor, who are daily offered in holocausts to the very rich by those who are less so.
"Mr. Keeley, then, is what the Kabbalists term a 'magician born.' Such as he is, however, he does not know, and never will know, the full extent of his powers. He will only be able to profit by such as he has discovered himself, in his own nature. And this for two reasons. Firstly, because he attributes to these powers a false origin which will prevent him from giving them full play; and secondly, because he is incapable of communicating to others that which is an inherent capacity of his own nature. He will, therefore, be unable to transmit all of his secret for permanent application.
"It is not rare to find individuals endowed with a like faculty. If we do not hear them spoken of more frequently, it is because in almost all cases they live and die without suspecting that they are possessors of any abnormal powers. Such powers are considered abnormal to-day, only because they are as little known as was the circulation of the blood before the epoch of Harvey. The blood existed and acted in the same way that it does to-day, in the first man that was born of woman: just so there is in man a principle that is capable of directing and regulating the vibratory inter-etheric force. This principle exists, at least, in those whose 'inner self' is connected by direct descent with that group of Dhyan-Chohans called the 'first-born of the Ether.' From the psychic point of view, humanity is divided into different branches, each of which is attached to one of the groups of Dhyan-Chohans who 'in the Beginning' created the psychic man. Mr. Keeley, favored by such a connection, and being endowed, in addition, with a remarkable psychic temperament and an extraordinary mechanical genius, is capable of achieving the most marvellous results. That which he has just accomplished is in itself sufficient 'to demolish, with the hammer of science, the idols of science' — those idols whose feet are clay.
"There are limits which Mr. Keeley will be unable to pass: yet, without doubt, his name will go down to posterity for that which he shall have accomplished in the domain of psycho-physical inventions. He will be known as the benefactor of the rich. Whether the poor will have cause to bless this great man is quite another question. The miners, the engineers, the mechanics, the millions of unfortunate working men who gain with difficulty their daily bread by the work of their hands, will find themselves without occupation on the day that the 'etheric force' of Mr. Keeley shall have taken the place of steam engines and other means of locomotion. But that day will not come!
"The force that Mr. Keeley has just unwittingly discovered is none other than that terrible astral power known to the Atlanteans, and called by them Mash-mak. It is 'vril' of 'the Coming Race' of Bulwer's romance, and of the future races of humanity. The word 'vril' may possibly be an invention of the writer of that story: but the force itself is not, for it is referred to in all of the secret books of India. It is this identical vibratory force which, directed against an army by means of a machine (agni-rath) stationed in a 'flying vessel,' according to the instructions laid down in the Ashtar Vidya (2) would reduce a hundred thousand men and elephants to cinders as easily as if they were wisps of straw. It is mentioned in the 'Vishnu Purana' under the symbol of the 'glance' of Kapila, — the Sage who, by the glance of his eye, reduced the sixty thousand sons of King Sagara to a heap of ashes.
"And is it conceivable that it will be permitted to our generation to add this Satanic power to the choice collection of the toys of the children of Anarchy, — such as melinite, dynamite clocks, explosive oranges, 'bouquets of flowers,' and such like innocent trifles? Is it possible that the 'Elder Brothers' of the race should deliver, to the cupidity of our century, this destructive agent, which, in the hands of some modern Attila or of some Anarchist thirsting for blood, could in a few days reduce Europe to primitive chaos? Never! The discovery of Mr. Keeley comes a hundred thousand years before its proper time. It will never truly take its place in the cyclic evolution of humanity until the threatening tide of capitalistic monopoly shall have ebbed; which will take place when just claims shall have been listened to.
"When such a thing as unjustly paid labor exists only as a matter of history — when the cry of famine ceases to be heard in the world, — then only will the discovery of Mr. Keeley cease to be an anachronism, because then the poor will have more use for it than the rich."
In the foregoing we find additional interest upon reading in the N. Y. Sun, of December 15, 1887, an account of the last annual meeting of Mr. Keeley's company, at which his report upon his discovery was read. Among other things he said:
"After a succession of interesting but laborious experiments, he produced in March of 1885 what he termed a liberator, which could be operated in conjunction with the generator, and was a vast stride in advance of anything accomplished hitherto. Meanwhile phenomena had been unfolded to him, opening "a new field of experiment, as the result of which he became possessed of a new and important discovery. Hereafter he shall not, he says, require the generator or liberator, and his operations will be conducted without either the vaporic or etheric forces, which heretofore played such an important part in his exhibitions. What name to give his new form of force he does not know, but the basis of it all, he says, is vibratory sympathy. It may be divided, too, into negative and sympathetic attraction, these two forms of force being the antithesis of each other. As to the practical outcome of his work, Mr Keeley could make no promises."Among the work yet to be done is the construction of a sympathetic machine of a very delicate character. While this will be a perfect vibratory structure itself, its function is to complete the work of graduation or governing of the force, but as to what length of time it will take to complete the work he cannot say."
Evidently the end is not yet. By this report we see that even since Madame Blavatsky wrote her remarks, Mr. Keeley has been thrown off the track, has given up — or gone beyond — all that he had hitherto done, and now is engaged on "a new form" and a "sympathetic vibrator," which will take longer to complete than he cares to say; and when that is completed, there will be further steps necessary before practical results are seen.
FOOTNOTES:
1. See "Occult World." (return to text)
2. A Hindu book. — [Ed.] (return to text)