CHAPTER VII

INCENSE AND OCCULTISM

The ancients possessed amazing secrets concerning psychic knowledge of all kinds. Apart from the philosophical tenets held by the various degrees of priestcraft there was a special secret knowledge of what may be called the mechanical side. They knew how to produce phenomena.

Then as now, the specially gifted were used in connection with the service of mysteries, but in all the old cults which attained to any degree of organization the arch-priests or hierophants were not themselves mediums, but made use of mediums as instruments. The rôle played by the medium was a more or less unimportant one just as to-day the “psychics” used by the different sects of Tibetan Lamas are relatively unimportant and insignificant members of the priestcraft.

The priests had, however, other secrets--secrets which on occasion conferred the gift of vision on the ordinary non-psychic person. Sacerdotalism and royalty were closely allied not only in ancient Egypt, but throughout the bulk of the mid-Oriental and Byzantine cults. Then as now, people demanded proof of miracles and the proof had to be forthcoming.

Little by little, savants have recovered from hieroglyph and papyri, from stone and manuscript, something of the great rituals and something of both the outer and inner forms of these dead faiths.

We know enough to realize that the adepts possessed the art of releasing the spirit from the body and of producing the trance state not only in individuals but in comparatively large congregations.

The two hypotheses are the agency of hypnotism and the agency of some mechanical or physiological factor such as a drug.

The possibilities of hypnotism in the form of crowd suggestion cannot be overlooked, but it does not entirely account for some of the phenomena that tradition has handed down and which is substituted by contemporary record.

Analysis of some of these cults shows that the initiates partook of a ceremonial drink or brew of some kind and that there is a more than mystical use of the censer. Nine-tenths of the so-called propitiatory ritual was symbolic, but there remains an unexplained tenth part whose agency was primarily that of mechanical excitant of what one may term “psychism”--those qualities of perception that we class as psychic gifts.

It is precisely these extraordinarily valuable secrets that were among the deepest arts of the priestcraft. There was no record of these--nothing direct is to be found in the writings, and although it is possible to recover the philosophic bases of the myths these rule-of-thumb mysteries still elude us.

After all, many other similar secrets, and even fairly well-known common facts of antiquity, have been lost to us. We do not know the composition of the celebrated Roman fish sauce “garum.” We cannot tell what are the ingredients of Stradivarius’ violin varnishes or some old master’s colours. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable to suppose that the necessary materials have vanished from the earth. We have the whole known world to ransack for them where the ancients had only a limited and circumscribed number of plants, beasts, and minerals from which to gather their ingredients.

The function of some drugs is to produce mental effects, visions, hallucinations, dreams, and phantoms. The logical assumption is that the ancients knew certain rule-of-thumb methods of utilizing some forms of these drugs in such a way as to loosen the hold of the body (and the consciousness) upon the mind, and to produce an artificial state of clairvoyance.

The wizard of the Middle Ages was also a doctor, and it is claimed that the familiar that inhabited the sword of Paracelsus--which sword he always had by him and could never be parted from--was none other than a certain amount of opium concealed in the hollow pommel.[33]

The function of hypnotic drugs is known to a point. That is to say, we know what effect is produced on a normal individual by a given dose of an unknown drug, but in nine cases out of ten we do not know precisely how this effect is brought about and have few clues to the series of physiological reactions that bring about the mental state.

The connection between a physical draught and a mental state is indicated throughout the history of magic. Ceremonial libations, ritual consumption of potions or “devil’s brews” of one kind and another are part and parcel of the traditions of necromancy and sorcery.

The connection between these hypnotic draughts and the practice of poisoning was not clearly perceived by most writers of the past. Sorcery and poisoning were indeed twin practices of the Middle Ages, for where the spell might fail white arsenic would succeed, but it is not fair to class all magical potions as preparations of secret poisons, although in point of fact most of the hypnotic drugs are toxic.

The methods of administering the drugs are two--namely, by draught, that is to say by direct consumption, and inhalation. The function of the incense used in thaumaturgical ceremonies was primarily to intoxicate the audience.

Just as the Pythoness of the Delphic oracles inhaled the vapours of the magic cave, so the Egyptians inhaled prepared incenses in their temples. The casting of herbs upon the fire, the burning of prepared sacrificial candles or flambeaux, all these play their part in the mechanical induction of the psychic state.

Frankincense and myrrh, and in particular gum benzoin, possess soothing properties that affect the throat and nasal passages. Besides being pleasant, these gums formed an excellent vehicle for disguising the scent of other matters and preventing their spasmodic or instant action on the throat.

The kyphic or incense of ancient Egypt[34] was compounded of myrrh, gum-mastic, aromatic rush roots, resin, and juniper berries. To these aromatics were added small quantities of symbolic elements, such as grapes, honey and wine, and a portion of bitumen or _asphateum_, whose purpose might be either symbolic or to serve as a binding medium for the mass.

In addition to these, various spices and perfumes were used. Cinnamon bark, sandalwood, cardamom, and even ambergris and musk. The influence of scent upon the emotions is well known and the Egyptians favoured the use of ambra and musk as definitely aphrodisiacal perfumes. To-day pure essence of patchouli is used in the Orient to serve the same end, and anybody who has ever smelt a vial of the pure oil will recognize the instant disturbance of certain nerve centres that it produces.

The clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have been able to recover from the papyri, but in the word itself. Kyphi is recognizable to-day in “keef,” the popular name for the smokable variety of the herb cannabis indica.

Cannabis indica is none other than our old friend hashish, the haseesh of the writers of the time of the Crusades, who gave us those descriptions of the Old Man of the Mountains and his Hasch-hassins. From them we get our commonplace word--assassin.

It is not, after all, a far cry from the mysteries of Osiris in Egypt to the Thammus or _Dumuri-absu_ of Syria and Babylon.

“Thammuz came next behind Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,”

says Milton.

Osiris and Thammus “died” annually, and mimicry of the symbolic event was the basis of all ritual. In the mysteries the initiates “died,” too, but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state of stupor of deep trance brought about by the fumes of the “keef.”

These secrets lingered long in Lebanon, where to this day the Crypto-christianity of the Druses may be identified with many of the actual practices of magic.

The master of the Assassins was a master hypnotist, using the dark knowledge of certain parts of the mechanical ritual of magic to gain his mastery over the Moslem youths he sent as fanatics to do his bidding.

There in the Lebanon he created his artificial paradise of sensuous delight, drugged dreams and slumber. His commands laid upon his slaves were no ordinary commands--but spells as black as any weaved by sorcery.

The master lodge of this cult of the Assassins was at Cairo and the mysteries were only transferred to their new setting in the Lebanon by Hassan ibn Sabbah at the end of the eleventh century. Outwardly Moslem, the inner mysteries had no connection with either Mohammedan or any other religion, and indeed the cult seems to be in many ways a kind of bastard Masonic organization.

Nominally a Moslem sect of Ismailites, the organization was under a commander, the _Sheik-al-Tebel_, or Chief of the Mountains, who was served by minor chiefs or priors--the three _Dai-al-kirbal_. Following these came the _Dais_ or adepts, and below them three minor grades, _Refigos_, _Fedais_, and _Lasigos_.[35]

The Fedais or “entered apprentice” grade furnished the rank and file of the fanatical executants of the paramount will, and these Fedais, who were customarily mentally and physically pathic, never rose above this step in the mysteries.

The Society of the Assassins was nominally suppressed by Halaga, the Mogul invader of the middle of the thirteenth century, but the knowledge, the secrets, and the traditions endured and still endure to this day.

The organization was undoubtedly an evil one; it also had nothing to do with Masonry, but it is an interesting example of an occult society whose powers affected the course of history, and methods of working were essentially based upon mechanical rather than spiritual methods of producing a certain state of mind.

The effect of hashish is a very difficult thing to define. Essentially a hypnotic--an annihilator of time and space and a stimulant of hallucinations--it is also a drug largely dependent on the idiosyncracy of the individual. The same does not necessarily produce equivalent results in individuals of differing temperament, and for all practical purposes the psychic value of the dose varies inversely with the standard of intelligence of the recipient. Also, when dealing with subjects of dual or multiple personality, it tends to liberate the more violent and uncontrolled of the individualities.

Hashish is absorbed rapidly. Cases have been known where a little of the extract used as an anodyne in corn plasters has been absorbed and produced hallucinatory state. As a smoke, veiled by incense or mixed with tobacco, rapid intoxication results from its inhalation. This was one of the keys--perhaps the greatest of the keys--to the storehouse of those treasures of the mind which are the time Elixir, the True Gold of the Magi.

In actual practice there is a preliminary state of suggestibility under the influence of hashish when the operator can exercise his will upon that of the subject. This stage is soon passed over and in the later dream states suggestion is inoperative.

The modern pharmacist has lost the secret of the herb whose therapeutic function is to control the action of the cannabis indica, so that the subject remained in the suggestible state and did not pass on to the later stages of hallucinatory visions.

We may take it that so far as the old world is concerned, the half of the secret has been recovered, but the balancing or deterrent herb is still unrecognized by the pharmacopœia and known only to a specialist few among experimental occultists. Just as hashish itself is missing from the recipient, the Ebers papyri, so is the balancing coefficient.[36]

On the other hand, the same secret of priestcraft is known on the other side of the Atlantic. We may or may not believe in the myth of lost Atlantis and the transmitted ritual, but both the Zaquis of Sonora and the Tamachecks of Guatemala possess a ritual observance in which cannabis Americana, a new cousin of the cannabis indica, is the stimulant agent.

Other tribes use a brew of the mescal bean, but this is a purely American species and the active principle anhalonium,[37] does not act on precisely the same nerve centres as the cannabinote principle of the hemps.

In both cases the induction of a species of intoxication by means of the sacred herbs gathered in certain lunar or astrological aspects is held by the natives to be the basis of the communion with the spirits of the departed dead. The Spiritualist believes that there are spirits of the dead, the physiologist claims that the “spirits” are hallucinatory or that they are merely reflex as from the subconscious mind of the individual or of other individuals. This twin explanation runs through all psychic phenomena, but not until all phenomena known to be produced by Spiritualist circles can be produced under hypnosis will the Spiritualist theory be finally disproved.

The rank and file of Spiritualists are unaware that the scientific world has a demonstrable answer to nine-tenths of the wonder that the believing Spiritualist is convinced can only occur by means of discarnate spirit intelligences. But the honest investigator should bear in mind that only certain rare phenomena remain unchallenged and are at present unattainable by practising psychologists.

When the phenomena of materialization--the externalization of force--are producible by hypnotists, then the whole spirit hypothesis is imperilled, for the scientists will be able to produce these effects not by spirit intervention but at the behest of human will.

Still, for the moment, the uncritical white, like the barbarous Indian, is justified in his belief in external spirit agency as the only explanation for the apparently miraculous.

A friend of mine who had been a member of an exploring expedition whose mission was to trace a tributary of the river Usmacinta in Chiapas on the Mexico-Guatemala border to its source in the volcanic country round the unknown Lago de Peten, made a careful study of the ritual of the Tamachacks.

These people still carry out a pre-Columbian religion which antedates that of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations both of Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula.

Essentially symbolic in that it takes into account primitive nature and ancestor worship, the basis of the cult is the evocation of the spirits of the departed dead for tribal and personal counsel and consultation. The means employed in the production of the psychic state is the smoke of the _cannabis americana_. The native name of this herb is _marihuana_.

The following is my friend’s description of one of the actual native ceremonies at which he was present:

“We were up in the Intamal country about four days’ hard river travelling beyond the San Cristobal frontier. Little by little, the isolated plantations disappeared, and soon we were deep in the untouched jungle country where there are only native villages.

“That day I was with the advance party, and as we were making a fairly complete cadastral survey of our route, we deviated slightly toward a largish jungle-covered hill that would furnish us with an excellent commanding position for triangulation.

“My native peons were carrying our little transit theodolite and we were following a native track that led toward the hill when our party was suddenly surrounded.

“A whistle blew in the jungle and out from the bush came semi-nude Indians variously armed. A few had trade guns, but the bulk carried the inevitable machete, while a minority had short bows and long quivers of obsidian-headed arrows.

“They offered us no overt violence, but made it abundantly clear that they resented any party attempting to scale their hill. Most of the dialogue was in the native tongue, a debased agglutinative inflective speech similar to Nanhatl. The leader, who wore a peculiar breastplate of featherwork, could, however, talk Spanish comparatively fluently.

“My greatest trouble was to induce him to understand that we were not a prospecting party and were not after gold. Talk with our men who had been with us some months finally reassured him. A chance compliment of mine about his feather breastplate, which was of quetzal feathers, opened the magic door to me.

“It was astonishing to that Indian, who had probably not seen a hundred white men, as distinct from Mexicans, in all his life, to find in me a man who knew more about the mythological importance of the quetzal bird than he knew himself.

“My work on the ruined cities of Yucatan and my studies of the Mittall codices and similar work had given me a sound knowledge of the worship of Quetzalcoatl the god of the Morning Star, to whom the wonderful emerald-plumaged quetzal bird is sacred.

“To cut a long story short, I arranged things with the head-man so that we could camp in his village that night. The people were kindly, once they understood that we were not gold hunters and meant no harm, and my friend the head-man, having introduced me to certain elders and discussed with them my knowledge of their almost extinct faith, invited me to be present as a participant in a religious feast to be held that night.

“The feast was that of the Cozca cuaptli--the feast of vultures, birds as important in the Mayan underworld as in the Egyptian ceremonies.

“Shortly after dusk I left the village with them, going alone and to all external seeming unarmed. We made a long journey through the bush, climbing higher all the time, and I realized that we were actually on the sacred hill that they had forbidden us to ascend.

“Here and there along the route we were stopped by sentries or guards, but at last gained the top of the hill. Here, encircled by trees, was a flat table top or plateau a few acres in extent.

“Rising on the plateau was a series of three square terraces culminating in a small ruined building, roofless yet sound as to its walls. The lowest plateau was packed with Indians; on the second were congregated the elect--the tribal seniors and the priests. Above them a figure or two moved in the building.

“My friends took some time explaining my presence, and it was obvious that I was regarded with dark disfavour by the mass of the natives. Soon it dawned on me that I was under guard, an unobtrusive guard, but nevertheless under guard. At last I was taken to the high priest of the ceremonial.

“He was a wonderful old Indian who spoke the accented Latin Spanish of forgotten generations. He examined me, and though I could not reply to certain mysterious ritualistic questions that he put to me, he was at length satisfied that I had an efficient working knowledge not only of his ritual but of its underlying astronomical and philosophical significance. Eventually he was satisfied, and on a word from him I was taken in hand by two native youths who bound a fillet of red-dyed wool worked with feather devices round my brow and gave me a peeled rod surmounted by a vulture’s skull to hold as a wand of office. Over my clothes was put a loose dark brown cotton robe sewn with charms and trimmed at each shoulder with tufts of sombre plumage.

“Thus dressed I took my place among the elders. For a while nothing happened, then slowly the noise of the crowd died down and expectancy gave place to clamour. From somewhere in the forest came the sudden rhythm of native drums seemingly casual, inopportune, and meaninglessly cadenced.

“Little by little the monotony of the drum throbbing became more insistent, more definitely rhythmical. A brazier in the temple building began to glow red, and far below in the valley mists we could see a group of flaring torches dancing like fireflies as their bearers scaled the difficult trail.

“Suddenly the voice of the chief priest rose in a high-pitched wailing call, and as he hailed, a new and brilliant star seemed to spring into being over the dark crest of a nearby hill.

“The assemblage bowed to the star and broke into a wailing Indian chant that kept time to the beating of the hidden throbbing drums.

“After the prayer came the dance. To the centre of the second terrace bearers carried what looked like a bundle of blankets; then nude but for feather adornments, the young initiates came forward in processional dance. Every tenth man held a torch, and the dancers carried out a long ballet symbolical of the burial or consumption of the mortal body of the vultures.

“They hopped grotesquely like the ill-omened zopilotes or scavenger vultures they initiated. A querulous clucking accompaniment was uttered by the chorus of spectators and the files of bronze bodies advanced and retreated, swayed and circled in slow-hopping processions around the blanketed heap upon the ground that represented the body.

“Suddenly the drum rhythm changed and a curious whistling pipe music was heard. The heap of blankets stirred and rattled, from the heap an arm flung out white bones, a skull rolled to the feet of the spectators, then the blankets were flung aside and an Indian youth, completely nude, but painted white and marked with ritual signs, leapt from the pile.

“Rising to his full height he donned a towering feather headdress of humming bird and quetzal feathers which gleamed like a myriad jewels in the torchlight.

“Three times the spectators claimed him as the risen God, then the drums broke out into a violent triumphant dance in an infectious measure in which both dancers and spectators joined.

“In the meantime a cloth or canvas housing had been drawn over the roofless temple by minor priests. The brazier was carried inside, and suddenly the Boy God, leaving the dancers, ascended the steps and entered the prepared pavilion.

“As suddenly the drums fell silent and the shrill pipes alone kept up the eerie tune.

“My friend touched me on the shoulder, the seated elders rose, and, following the high priest, we made our way into the sanctuary.

“Ranging ourselves along the walls we sat down in an open square. In the centre was the youth stretched on a skin-covered native bedstead, at its head the brazier.

“Swiftly the door was sealed with skin mats; then to the accompaniment of a muttered ritual and much raising and lowering of skull-tipped wands, the priest cast herbs into the brazier. The heavy smoke wreathed about in the close room and a sense of languor fell upon me.

“Right and left I could hear the elders inhaling the vapour, then one after another they succumbed to its influence. Then came an invocation to the spirits, and the old men began to talk to spirits that they alone could see among the hazy, drug-laden smoke of the lodge.

“As if inspired, the boy uttered oracular wisdom, now answering questions put to him, now declaiming what he had heard the spirits say. Slowly the drug gained in its effect over me. The painted leather screens on the rude walls became instinct with life, the crude stone carving seemed alive and writhing, and all the air seemed charged with flashing processions of colours and sonorous music.

“I must have been overcome by the fumes, for I remember nothing more till I came to in the dawn-light in one of the terraces outside the building. They gave me a calabash of herb-scented goat’s milk to drink, and in a moment or two my brain cleared.... I made it my interest to get some of the marihuana herb, which I send you.”

Analysis of the marihuana revealed that it contained about twenty-five per cent. admixture of other herbs in addition to the main base of _cannabis americana_. A gum or sap exudation of an aromatic nature served to bind the mass together.

A personal experiment carried out with a small portion of the mixture proved that identical hallucinatory results could be induced by its use in a London room as well as on the top of a Guatemalan Tescalli. Of a party of four, three saw colour visions, two heard music, and one described figures of Mazan mythology with some exactness. As, however, we all know the origin of the incense and its connection, these latter visions may be more properly ascribed to suggestion than held to have objective existence as spirit phenomena.

There is reason to believe that other plants, and possibly some synthetic products, have the same peculiar properties of the liberation of the “psyche.” In the same way, although consumption as a draught or as an inhaled smoke veiled by incense are the ritual ways of achieving a physiological result, the same might be achieved by spraying a solution into the air, by absorption through the skin (this may have been the _raison d’être_ of some “witch ointments”), or by hypodermic injection.

Needless to say, any attempt to experiment in these matters is extremely unwise and dangerous.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] _Paracelsus_, Fr. A. Rufini.

[34] See Ebers papyri.

[35] See _Geschichte der Asassinen_. By T. von Hammer. Burgstall, _Un Grand Maître des Assassins au Temps du Saladin_. Also _Ars Quatuo Coronati_, Vol. ----

[36] The public interest would not be served by the revelation of the second missing ingredient, but it is now known.

[37] See monograph on _Mescal_ by Havelock Ellis.