Appendix I
For those who wish to understand practically the connection of the method of Gratry and Boole with ancient Philosophies.'
INITIATION FOR PHYSIC MATHEMATICS.
{{small-caps|Let the aspirant occasionally, when he is in any diffi- culty, put himself back in imagination into pre-historic times. Let him try to fancy himself an early Geologist, surrounded by savages who ask him to find water.
The Geologist takes the opportunity of showing them how to find the Water of Life. He says:—
"Let us seek the Great Father in our spirit; then perhaps He will show us how to supply our bodily needs.
"The truth is holy and pure; and may not be taught by any tree that has thorns or the likeness of the horns or tail of any beast; but only by this, the Sacred Hazel (or Olive, etc.). And let us put out of our minds all imperfect ideas and animal impulses; and seek to understand in straightforward simplicity.
"Separation seems to us an evil; but in reality it is not so; it is a condition of growth. Look at this tree; the branch that here has one bark-case, higher up is divided into two. It must be so; without separations nothing can grow into beauty. Therefore if God separates us from our friends, let us remember that separation is not an evil but a means of progress.
"Man is, like the trees, subject to the Law of separation; but he is not, like the trees, its slave. He is the son of the Law-giver; and heir of His power. I hold in my hand the instrument of separation; and can inflict it on anything that grows."
(He raises a knife.)
"Man, the Son of God, is Lord of all created things, and should pay superstitious homage to none. Therefore I fear not to cut this branch, though it grows on the Sacred Hazel."
(He cuts the branch, and takes it by the two prongs, the united end hanging downwards.)
" You call me Healer, Teacher and Counsellor; but my knowledge resides not in me. It comes from The Great Unity; and I acquire it by putting together in my mind things which I see dissevered, and dissevering in my mind things which I see together. In token whereof I reverse this branch ; putting Unity where was division, and division where Unity was."
(He reverses the wand).
"If any of you seek help from me, I bid you come while I hold reversed this sacred branch of divination; in order that you may always remember that knowledge comes from putting together things which we find separated, and separating things which we find together.
"This knowledge is not mine, to give or to withhold; it comes down from The Unseen Unity Whose servant and revealer I am; and is given, freely, to all who seek it with a pure heart. In token whereof I raise this branch high over your heads and mine."
(He raises the branch.)
"Now lest any should think that the Hazel has powers of its own, I will cast the branch into the flames, that all may witness how powerless it is to avert its own dissolution. May the Unseen Father accept the offering of ourselves and all that we have; and deign to minister to our bodily needs."
(He burns the branch.)
The awe-struck savages would by this time be polarized into a "circle"; and the Magician (whose Geologic insight would have been already informed by studious observation) would become lucid; and see where water was.
The student should, occasionally, go over this little scene in his mind; especially when he finds himself in any intellectual or moral perplexity. If he holds the forked stick in his hands and actually goes through the performance, especially with a freshly-cut stick, so much the better. The magnetism of the fresh Hazel-Wand acts as a slight additional stimulant; much as breathing doubly oxygenated air for a few minutes might do.
The modern Dowser is one in whom fidelity to the Past is a physical instinct. When he goes through half of this ceremony, his fingers tingle with the longing to complete it. They and the Hazel mutually magnetize each other, till the fork, of its own accord, completes as much of the ceremony as it can.
The Psychic mathematician is one in whom fidelity to the Past is a spiritual instinct. When he meditates on old Ceremonies, secrets connected with the mathematical organization of thought reveal themselves in his brain. To him, what others call Time is as a fourth dimension of Space; and he sees it, stretched out like a line. His Trinity is not three Persons in One God, but three times in One Eternal, Past, Present, and Future. And when he becomes lucid, Time becomes foreshortened, and he sees them as One; sees them (at his best) with equal distinctness and assurance.
When the aspirant has become impregnated with the ideas suggested by the early and savage ceremony, he may take a further step. Let him picture a band of eager lovers of Liberty using the Ceremony to initiate a new member. The initiator concludes it by holding the rod by its tips and making it slowly revolve; having the united end alternately above and below his fingers, saying:—
"I dedicate you to the cause of orderly Revolution; and the overthrow of all systems based on the maintenance of any fixed condition of things. Let us pray that the Will of God may be done on earth as it is in the Heavens; that is to say, by incessant, orderly Revolution.
"In the Name of The Invisible Unity, Eternal and Inconceivable, Amen."
Let the aspirant go over this in his mind, when he is puzzled by any political or social problem, and fix his mind's eye on the spiral earth-path or moon-path. After a time, he will think of things as Boole and Gratry did, and understand their terminology easily.
An objection has been made to my presentment of the Branch ritual, because old documents prove that Ritual to have been, at various times, connected with fleshly and sensuous ideas. It certainly was so. Those who consider that fact a disproof of my view must have approached the study of ancient systems from the outside and with minds saturated with European ideas of classification and distinction. The true line of cleavage between good and bad, in religion, lies not between this and that ritual, but between the simple and the perverted use of the same ritual. A Water-Dowser taught me the traditional method of cutting and handling the forked Divining-Rod; and I have no hesitation in affirming that what I witnessed was the remains of some old and very solemn ceremony. I went through the performances repeatedly with the Hazel as instructed by the Dowser; the forks were nearly all plain forked sticks. Afterwards I cut forks from all kinds of shrubs and trees growing in the neighbourhood of Greenstreet (Kent). I got a large collection. Some were like the horns of beetles, oxen, or stags; several would serve for Phallus symbols. One (from a hawthorn) had a thorn out in front and a longer one behind; and bore the most extraordinary resemblance to the hind quarters of an ape in a very nasty attitude. One, from a Honey-suckle, showed a perfect clean fork, a miniature copy of the pure Hazel fork, but with a spiral coil winding round and round it—a perfect picture of the Serpent in the Tree of Knowledge.
This inference illustrates how easily the symbols of a pure religion may slip over into being symbols of degrading idolatry ; and how unwise it would be to treat any ancient ritual as in itself and necessarily evil, only because priests have perverted it. This is more especially the case, because the Creator Inspirer, Who descends at the moment of contact between differentiated polars, is the object of worship of all inspired Genius. Adonis,—the god of vicious wasteful expenditure of force in the pursuit of mere sensuous pleasure, is the same word as Adonai, the Fertilizing Inspirer of the Hebrew; the name too sacred to be written and indicated only by dots. Pan, the horrible Satyr, is "the All," the Unity of Nature; identical with "The I Am, the Unity " Who delivered Israel from bondage.
FORMULA FOR SOCIAL COMBINATION
The maximum of force is got by a coalition between the party rising into predominance and the class most neglected and despised. In France, in the 18th century, Philosophy was the rising power, and the proletariat were almost deprived of Civil rights; when they combined, they swept everything before them. In England, now, Science, especially psychological Science, is the rising power, and the only class denied all right is the class of lunatics.