An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present - Doreen Valiente 2018

Quintessence

The occult philosophers of the most ancient times have handed down to us the idea of the Four Elements of Life, namely earth, air, fire and water. But above and beyond these, the elements of the visible world, they assigned a fifth, which they called the Quintessence, Aether or Spirit.

In this book there has inevitably been a frequent mention of the word ’power’. The power of magic, the power which is raised by the practices of witchcraft, and so on. But what is this power, so vaguely referred to? Is it merely suggestion, or a form of hypnotism? Or does it have a basis and origin in some unknown kind of energy?

These are questions not easily answered, for several reasons. However, consideration of the old idea of the Fifth Element, or Quintessence, is not irrelevant to such enquiry.

It is at least curious to note the universality of this belief. The people of the Ancient East share it equally with European alchemists and magicians of the Middle Ages. The Eastern yogis and fakirs, however, have their own words for what we call the Elements. They name them the Tattvas, the five manifestations of universal energy. The Hindu terms are as follows: Prithivi, symbolised by a yellow square, the equivalent of earth; Apas, whose symbol is a white crescent, meaning water; Tejas, a red triangle, fire; Vayu, a blue circle, air; Akasha, a black oval, Spirit or Aether.

And in the old Welsh Druidic traditions found in Barddas, we may note the following: “Earth, water, firmament, fire and nyv; and the nyv is God, and life, and intellect. From the first four are all death and mortality; and from the fifth are all life and animation, all power, knowledge and motion.”

It is remarkable, too, how this ancient idea of an unseen universal energy has demanded re-examination in our own day, in view of the completely new concept (new to us, at any rate), which modern atomic physics has given us of the universe. We have become quite accustomed to the idea that matter and energy are interchangeable terms; yet this is the very idea that the old occult philosophers advanced, and that nineteenth-century materialism laughed to scorn.

In our own day, however, we have seen, not only an entirely new concept of matter and energy, but the serious study of such phenomena as those of what used to be called ’dowsing’ or ’water-witching’ and is now grandly termed radiesthesia.

This has led to a general consideration of what we may term ’borderline energies’. It seems very possible that in this mysterious region some, at any rate, of the real secrets of magical power may be found. (The pioneer work of Mr. T. C. Lethbridge, and the series of books he has published, detailing his investigations, deserve particular notice in this connection.)

Many scholars in the past have already studied these matters; but great confusion has been caused by the fact that nearly all of them, according to their own idiosyncrasies, have bestowed their own particular title upon what is fundamentally the same thing.

Mesmer, for instance, had his theory of ’animal magnetism’, which he called: “A most fine, subtle fluid, which penetrates everything, and is capable of receiving and communicating all kinds of motions and impressions”. He was, however, merely repeating in different terms the teachings of Paracelsus (1493—1534).

Paracelsus believed that the human body resembled a magnet, and that its ’magnetism’ was directable by the will. He, too, advanced the idea of a ’universal fluid’—a concept which scientists of the Age of Reason regarded with ridicule. An invisible ’fluid’, that could interpenetrate solid objects—what nonsense! Today, with our knowledge of radio waves and other kinds of radiation, it does not seem such nonsense after all.

The founders of the Spiritualist movement based many of their ideas on this concept of a ’borderline energy’, something between the physical and the astral worlds, and partaking somewhat of the characteristics of both. They believed it to be the agent for the manifestations, at least those of a physical nature, which took place at their seances.

On the other side of the world, the Kahunas, or native magicians, of the Pacific Islands, had always believed in this force as the vehicle for their wonder-working. They called it Mana, and this word has come into general use by the students of comparative religion.

Lord Lytton, in his strange imaginative novel, The Coming Race (London, 1871), called this force Vril. He refers in his book to the factual researches by Baron Von Reichenbach, into a mysterious force which the Baron called Od or Odyle.

Other occultists have called this force ’Universal Life Energy’, or ’The Great Magical Agent’. In Mary Anne Attwood’s remarkable book, A Suggestive Enquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (first published in London in 1850), she suggests that this “Quintessence of the Philosophers” is the thing which the alchemists really meant by “Mercury”, and not any material mercury or quicksilver.

It can at least be theorised that this Quintessence is the real subject of the mysterious inscription said to have been found upon the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. This tablet was so called because according to legend it was an inscribed plate of pure emerald, held in the hands of the corpse of the great Adept, Hermes Trismegistus. It is said to have been found in a cave-sepulchre near Hebron. Some versions of the legend say that the discoverer was Sara, the wife of Abraham; others that it was Alexander the Great or Apollonius of Tyana. Very early Arabic versions of the mysterious inscriptions have been found; and Latin versions circulated among occult students in medieval Europe.

The translation reads as follows:

True without lie, certain and most true: that which is below is like unto that which is above, and that which is above is like unto that which is below, in order to carry out the miracles of the One Thing [ad perpetranda miracula Rei Unius]

And as all things were from One, by one contemplation, so all things were born from that One Thing, by adaptation. [Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab Uno meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione].

Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon; the Wind has borne it in its womb; its nurse is the Earth.

The father of all the forms [telesmi] of the world is here.

Its power is complete [integra] if it is turned to the Earth.

Thou shalt separate the Earth from the Fire, the subtle from the gross, gently, with much ingenuity.

It rises from Earth to Heaven, and returns again to the Earth; and receives power from above and from below.

Thus thou shalt possess the glory of the whole world; and all darkness will flee from you.

Here is the potent power of all strength; which overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all solid things.

Thus was the world created.

Hence will be miraculous adaptations, of which the mode is here.

Therefore I am called Hermes, the Thrice Great; having three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.

That which I have said about the Operation of the Sun is fulfilled. [Completum est quod dixi de Operatione Solis].

This inscription is supposed to contain the most profound magical secrets, for those who can understand its cryptic message.

It certainly accords with what many occultists believe about the universal life energy, the immediate source of which for our solar system is thought to be the sun. Our sun sends out a great field of force, which the planets, having no light of their own, each reflect, and by so doing impart to it their own influences. The moon, although comparatively very small, reflects a great amount of force upon our earth, because of her nearness. Human beings absorb vital energy, which the Hindus call Prana, by breathing, and its great storehouse in the human body is said to be the solar plexus.

A great deal could be written about this aspect of occultism, and the relations of this Quintessence and its modifications to some, at any rate, of the real powers of witchcraft, as indeed of magic generally. However, considerations of space forbid me here to do more than indicate a possible line of study.

I must, nevertheless, remark on the work of Wilhelm Reich, and his discovery of what he calls orgone. The famous psychologist has written extensively about the properties of this subtle energy, which he says can be demonstrated in living organisms, in the atmosphere, the earth and in the radiation of the sun.

He claims it to be a universal cosmic energy, which can be measured and made visible. Its colour is blue-violet; and Reich considers the blue of the sky, and the blue haze seen at a distance in sunny weather, to be manifestations of orgone energy. The earth, he says, is surrounded by a field of orgone energy, which moves round it with a pulsating motion, from west to east. According to Reich, all substances contain orgone, as it penetrates everything; but only living substances radiate it.