Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00383)

STAR-ANGEL-WORSHIP

IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

[The subject matter of the present article has not been chosen from 
any desire of "finding fault" with the Christian religion, as LUCIFER 
is often accused of doing. No special animosity is felt towards 
popery any more than against any other existing dogmatic and 
ritualistic faith. We merely hold that "there is no higher religion 
than truth." Hence, being incessantly attacked by the Christians--
among whom none are so bitter and contemptuous as the Romanists--who 
call us "idolaters" and "heathens," and otherwise denounce us, it is 
necessary that at times something should be said in our defence, and 
truth reestablished.

The Theosophists are accused of believing in Astrology, and the Devas 
(Dhyan Chohans) of the Hindus and Northern Buddhists. A too impulsive 
missionary in the Central Provinces of India has actually called 
us "Astrolaters," "Sabians" and "devil-worshippers." This, as usual, 
is an unfounded calumny and a misrepresentation. No theosophist, no 
Occultist in the true sense of the word has ever worshipped Devas, 
Nats, Angels or even planetary spirits. Recognition of the actual 
existence of such Beings--which, however exalted, are still gradually 
evolved creatures and finite--and even reverence for some of them is 
not worship. The latter is an elastic word, one that has been made 
threadbare by the poverty of the English tongue. We address a 
magistrate as his "worship," but it can hardly be said that we pay to 
him divine honours. A mother often worships her children, a husband 
his wife, and vice versa, but none of these prays to the object of 
his worship. But in neither case does it apply to the Occultists. An 
Occultist's reverence for certain high Spirits may be very great in 
some cases; aye, perhaps even as great as the reverence felt by some 
Christians for their Archangels Michael and Gabriel and their (St.) 
George of Cappadocia--the learned purveyor of Constantine's armies. 
But it stops there. For the Theosophists these planetary "angels" 
occupy no higher place than that which Virgil assigns them:

They
boast ethereal vigour and are form'd 
>From seeds of
heavenly birth,   
as does also every mortal. Each and all are occult potencies having 
sway over certain attributes of nature. And, if once attracted to a 
mortal, they do help him in certain things. Yet, on the whole, the 
less one has to do with them the better.

Not so with the Roman Catholics, our pious detractors. The Papists 
worship them and have rendered to them divine homage from the 
beginning of Christianity to this day, and in the full acceptation of 
the italicised words, as this article will prove. Even for the 
Protestants, the Angels in general, if not the Seven Angels of the 
Stars particularly--are "Harbingers of the Most High" 
and "Ministering Spirits" to whose protection they appeal, and who 
have their distinct place in the Book of Common Prayer.

The fact that the Star and Planetary Angels are worshipped by the 
Papists is not generally known. The cult had many vicissitudes. It 
was several times abolished, then again permitted. It is the short 
history of its growth, its last re-establishment and the recurrent 
efforts to proclaim this worship openly, of which a brief sketch is 
here attempted. This worship may be regarded for the last few years 
as obsolete, yet to this day it was never abolished. Therefore it 
will now be my pleasure to prove that if anyone deserves the name 
of "idolatrous," it is not the Theosophists, Occultists, Kabalists 
and Astrologers, but, indeed, most of the Christians; those Roman 
Catholics, who, besides the Star-angels, worship a Kyriel of more or 
less problematical saints and the Virgin Mary, of whom their Church 
has made a regular goddess. 

The short bits of history that follow are extracted from various 
trustworthy sources, such as the Roman Catholics will find it rather 
difficult to gainsay or repudiate. For our authorities are (a), 
various documents in the archives of the Vatican; (b), sundry works 
by pious and well-known Roman Catholic writers, Ultramontanes to the 
backbone--lay and ecclesiastical authors; and finally (c), a Papal 
Bull, than which no better evidence could be found.]

IN the middle of the VIIIth century of the Christian era the very 
notorious Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg, famous as few in the 
annals of magic, appeared before his judges. He was charged with, and 
ultimately convicted--by the second Council of Rome presided over by 
Pope Zacharia--of using during his performances of ceremonial magic 
the names of the "seven Spirits"--then at the height of their power 
in the Church--among others, that of URIEL, with the help of whom he 
had succeeded in producing his greatest phenomena. As can be easily 
shown, the church is not against magic proper, but only against those 
magicians who fail to conform to her methods and rules of evocation. 
However, as the wonders wrought by the Right Reverend Sorcerer were 
not of a character that would permit of their classification 
among "miracles by the grace, and to the glory of God," they were 
declared unholy. Moreover, the Archangel URIEL (lux et ignis) having 
been compromised by such exhibitions, his name had to be discredited. 
But, as such a disgrace upon one of the "Thrones" and "Messengers of 
the Most High" would have reduced the number of these Jewish 
Saptarishis to only six, and thus have thrown into confusion the 
whole celestial hierarchy, a very clever and crafty subterfuge was 
resorted to. It was, however, neither new, nor has it proved very 
convincing or efficacious.

It was declared that Bishop Adalbert's Uriel, the "fire of God," was 
not the Archangel mentioned in the second Book of Esdras; nor was he 
the glorious personage so often named in the magical books of Moses--
especially in the 6th and 7th. The sphere or planet of this original 
Uriel was said, by Michael Glycas the Byzantine, to be the Sun. How 
then could this exalted being-the friend and companion of Adam in 
Eden before his fall, and, later, the chum of Seth and Enoch, as all 
pious Christians know-how could he ever have given a helping hand to 
sorcery? Never, never! the idea alone was absurd.

Therefore, the Uriel so revered by the Fathers of the Church, 
remained as unassailable and as immaculate as ever. It was a devil of 
the same name--an obscure devil, one must think, since he is nowhere 
mentioned--who had to pay the penalty of Bishop Adalbert's little 
transactions in black magic. This "bad" Uriel is, as a certain 
tonsured advocate has tried hard to insinuate, connected with a 
certain significant word of occult nature, used by and known only to 
Masons of a very high degree. Ignorant of the "word" itself, however, 
the defender has most gloriously failed to prove his version.

Such whitewashing of the archangel's character was of course 
necessary in view of the special worship paid to him. St. Ambrosius 
had chosen Uriel as a patron and paid him almost divine reverence.1 
Again the famous Father Gastaldi, the Dominican monk, writer and 
Inquisitor, had proven in his curious work "On the Angels" (De 
Angelis) that the worship of the "Seven Spirits" by the Church had 
been and was legal in all the ages; and that it was necessary for the 
moral support and faith of the children of the (Roman) Church. In 
short that he who should neglect these gods was as bad as 
any "heathen" who did not.

Though sentenced and suspended, Bishop Adalbert had a formidable 
party in Germany, one that not only defended and supported the 
sorcerer himself, but also the disgraced Archangel. Hence, the name 
of Uriel was left in the missals after the trial, the "Throne" merely 
remaining "under suspicion." In accordance with her admirable policy 
the Church having declared that the "blessed Uriel," had nought to do 
with the "accursed Uriel" of the Kabalists, the matter rested there.

To show the great latitude offered to such subterfuges, the occult 
tenets about the celestial Hosts have only to be remembered. The 
world of Being begins with the Spiritual Fire (or Sun) and its 
seven "Flames" or Rays. These "Sons of Light," called the "multiple" 
because, allegorically speaking they belong to, and lead a 
simultaneous existence in heaven and on earth, easily furnished a 
handle to the Church to hang her dual Uriel upon. Moreover, Devas, 
Dhyan-Chohans, Gods and Archangels are all identical and are made to 
change their Protean forms, names and positions, ad libitum. As the 
sidereal gods of the Sabians became the kabalistic and talmudistic 
angels of the Jews with their esoteric names unaltered, so they 
passed bag and baggage into the Christian Church as the archangels, 
exalted only in their office.

These names are their "mystery" titles. So mysterious are they, 
indeed, that the Roman Catholics themselves are not sure of them, now 
that the Church, in her anxiety to hide their humble origin, has 
changed and altered them about a dozen times. This is what the pious 
de Mirville confesses:

"To speak with precision and certainty, as we might like to, about 
everything in connection with their (the angels') names and 
attributes is not an easy task. . . . For when one has said that 
these Spirits are the seven assistants that surround the throne of 
the Lamb and form its seven horns; that the famous seven-branched 
candlestick of the Temple was their type and symbol . . . when we 
have shown them figured in Revelation by the seven stars in the 
Saviour's hand, or by the angels letting loose the seven plagues--we 
shall but have stated once more one of those incomplete truths which 
we have to handle with such caution." (Of the Spirits before their 
Fall.)

Here the author utters a great truth. He would have uttered one still 
greater, though, had he added that no truth, upon any subject 
whatever, has been ever made complete by the Church. Otherwise, where 
would be the mystery so absolutely necessary to the authority of the 
ever incomprehensible dogmas of the Holy "Bride"?

These "Spirits" are called primarii principes. But what these first 
Principles are in reality is not explained. In the first centuries of 
Christianity the Church would not do so; and in this one she knows of 
them no more than her faithful lay sons do. She has lost the secret.

The question concerning the definite adoption of names for these 
angels, de Mirville tells us--"has given rise to controversies that 
have lasted for centuries. To this day these seven names are a 
mystery." 

Yet they are found in certain missals and in the secret documents at 
the Vatican, along with the astrological names known to many. But as 
the Kabalists, and among others Bishop Adalbert, have used some of 
them, the Church will not accept these titles, though she worships 
the creatures. The usual names accepted are Mikael, the "quis ut 
Deus," the "like unto God"; GABRIEL, the "strength (or power) of 
God"; RAPHAEL, or "divine virtue"; URIEL, "God's light and fire"; 
SCALTIEL, the speech of God'; JEHUDIEL, the "praise of God" and 
BARACHIEL, the ' blessing of God." These "seven" are absolutely 
canonical, but they are not the true mystery names--the magical 
POTENCIES. And even among the "substitutes," as just shown, Uriel has 
been greatly compromised and the three last enumerated are 
pronounced "suspicious." Nevertheless, though nameless, they are 
still worshipped. Nor is it true to say that no trace of these three 
names--so "suspicious"--is anywhere found in the Bible, for they are 
mentioned in certain of the old Hebrew scrolls. One of them is named 
in Chapter XVI of Genesis--the angel who appears to Hagar; and all 
the three appear as "the Lord" (the Elohim) to Abraham in the plains 
of Mamre, as the "three men" who announced to Sarai the birth of 
Isaac (Genesis, XVIII). "Jehudiel," moreover, is distinctly named in 
Chapter XXIII of Exodus, as the angel in whom was "the name" (praise 
in the original) of God (Vide verse 21). It is through their "divine 
attributes," which have led to the formation of the names, that these 
archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric method of 
transmutation with the Chaldean great gods and even with the Seven 
Manus and the Seven Rishis of India.2 They are the Seven Sabian Gods, 
and the Seven Seats (Thrones) and Virtues of the Kabalists; and now 
they have become with the Catholics, their "Seven Eyes of the Lord," 
and the "Seven Thrones," instead of "Seats."

Both Kabalists and "Heathen" must feel quite flattered to thus see 
their Devas and Rishis become the "Ministers Plenipotentiary" of the 
Christian God. And now the narrative may be continued unbroken.

Until about the XVth century after the misadventure of Bishop 
Adalbert, the names of only the first three Archangels out of the 
seven stood in the Church in their full odour of sanctity. The other 
four remained ostracised--as names. 

Whoever has been in Rome must have visited the privileged temple of 
the Seven Spirits, especially built for them by Michael Angelo: the 
famous church known as "St. Mary of the Angels." Its history is 
curious but very little known to the public that frequents it. It is 
worthy, however, of being recorded.

In 1460, there appeared in Rome a great "Saint," named Amadœus. He 
was a nobleman from Lusitania, who already in Portugal had become 
famous for his prophecies and beatific visions.3 During one of such 
he had a revelation. The seven Archangels appeared to the holy man, 
so beloved by the Pope that Sixtus IV had actually permitted him to 
build on the site of St. Peter in Montorio a Franciscan monastery. 
And having appeared they revealed to him their genuine bona fide 
mystery names. The names used by the Church were substitutes, they 
said. So they were, and the "angels" spoke truthfully. Their business 
with Amadœus was a modest request. They demanded to be legally 
recognized under their legitimate patronymics, to receive public 
worship and have a temple of their own. Now the Church in her great 
wisdom had declined these names from the first, as being those of 
Chaldean gods, and had substituted for them astrological aliases. 
This then, could not be done, as "they were names of demons" explains 
Baronius. But so were the "substitutes" in Chaldea before they were 
altered for a purpose in the Hebrew Angelology. And if they are names 
of demons, asks pertinently de Mirville, "why are they yet given to 
Christians and Roman Catholics at baptism?" The truth is that if the 
last four enumerated are demon-names, so must be those of Michael, 
Gabriel and Raphael.

But the "holy" visitors were a match for the Church in obstinacy. At 
the same hour that Amadœus had his vision at Rome, in Sicily, at 
Palermo, another wonder was taking place. A miraculously-painted 
picture of the Seven Spirits, was as miraculously exhumed from under 
the ruins of an old chapel. On the painting the same seven mystery 
names that were being revealed at that hour to Amadoeus were also 
found inscribed "under the portrait of each angel,"4 says the 
chronicler.

Whatever might be in this our age of unbelief the feelings of the 
great and learned leaders of various psychic and telepathic societies 
on this subject, Pope Sixtus IV was greatly impressed by the 
coincidence. He believed in Amadœus as implicitly as Mr. Brudenel 
believed in the Abyssinian prophet, "Herr Paulus."5 But this was by 
no means the only "coincidence" of the day. The Holy Roman and 
Apostolic Church was built on such miracles, and continues to stand 
on them now as on the rock of Truth; for God has ever sent to her 
timely miracles.6 Therefore, when also, on that very same day, an old 
prophecy written in very archaic Latin, and referring to both the 
find and the revelation was discovered at Pisa--it produced quite a 
commotion among the faithful. The prophecy foretold, you see, the 
revival of the "Planetary-Angel" worship for that period. Also that 
during the reign of Pope Clement VII, the convent of St. François de 
Paul would be raised on the emplacement of the little ruined 
chapel. "The event occurred as predicted," boasts de Mirville, 
forgetting that the Church had made the prediction true herself, by 
following the command implied in it. Yet this is called a "prophecy" 
to this day.

But it was only in the XVIth century that the Church consented at 
last to comply on every point with the request of her "high-born" 
celestial petitioners.

At that time though there was hardly a church or chapel in Italy 
without a copy of the miraculous picture in painting or mosaic, and 
that actually, in 1516, a splendid "temple to the seven spirits" had 
been raised and finished near the ruined chapel at Palermo--still 
the "angels" failed to be satisfied. In the words of their chronicler-
-"the blessed spirits were not contented with Sicily alone, and 
secret prayers. They wanted a world-wide worship and the whole 
Catholic world to recognize them publicly."

Heavenly denizens themselves, as it seems, are not quite free from 
the ambition and the vanities of our material plane! This is what the 
ambitious "Rectors" devised to obtain that which they wanted.

Antonio Duca, another seer (in the annals of the Church of Rome) had 
been just appointed rector of the Palermo "temple of the seven 
spirits." About that period, he began to have the same beatific 
visions as Amadrus had. The Archangels were now urging the Popes 
through him to recognize them, and to establish a regular and a 
universal worship in their own names, just as it was before Bishop 
Adalbert's scandal. They insisted upon having a special temple built 
for them alone, and they wanted it upon the ancient site of the 
famous Thermæ of Diocletian. To the erection of these Thermæ, 
agreeably with tradition, 40,000 Christians and 10,000 martyrs had 
been condemned, and helped in this task by such famous "Saints" as 
Marcellus and Thraso. Since then, however, as stated in Bull LV by 
the Pope Pius IV, "this den had remained set apart for the most 
profane usages and demon (magic?) rites."

But as it appears from sundry documents, all did not go quite as 
smooth as the "blessed spirits" would have liked, and the poor Duca 
had a hard time of it. Notwithstanding the strong protection of the 
Colonna families who used all their influence with Pope Paul III, and 
the personal request of Marguerite of Austria, the daughter of 
Charles Vth, "the seven spirits" could not be satisfied, for the same 
mysterious (and to us very clear) reasons, though propitiated and 
otherwise honoured in every way. The difficult mission of Duca, in 
fact, was crowned with success only thirty-four years later. Ten 
years before, however, namely in 1551, the preparatory purification 
of the Thermæ had been ordered by Pope Julius III, and a first church 
had been built under the name of "St. Mary of the Angels." But 
the "Blessed Thrones," feeling displeased with its name, brought on a 
war during which this temple was plundered and destroyed, as if 
instead of glorified Archangels they had been maleficent kabalistic 
Spooks. 

After this, they went on appearing to seers and saints, with greater 
frequency than before, and clamoured even more loudly for a special 
place of worship. They demanded the re-erection on the same spot (the 
Thermæ) of a temple which should be called the "Church of the Seven 
Angels." 

But there was the same difficulty as before. The Popes had pronounced 
the original titles demon-names, i.e., those of Pagan gods, and to 
introduce them into the church service would have been fatal. 
The "mystery names" of the seven angels could not be given. True 
enough, when the old "miraculous" picture with the seven names on it 
had been found, these names had been freely used in the church 
services. But, at the period of the Renaissance, Pope Clement XI had 
ordered a special report to be made on them as they stood on the 
picture. It was a famous astronomer of that day, a Jesuit, named 
Joseph Biancini, who was entrusted with this delicate mission. The 
result to which the inquest led, was as unexpected as it was fatal to 
the worshippers of the seven Sabian gods; the Pope, while commanding 
that the picture should be preserved, ordered the seven angelic names 
to be carefully rubbed out. And "though these names are traditional," 
and "although they have naught to do with," and are "very different 
from the names used by Adalbert" (the Bishop-magician of Magdeburg), 
as the chronicler cunningly adds, yet even their mention was 
forbidden in the holy churches of Rome.

Thus affairs went on from 1527 till 1561; the Rector trying to 
satisfy the orders of his seven "guides,"--the church fearing to 
adopt even the Chaldean substitutes for the "mystery-names" as they 
had been so "desecrated by magical practices." We are not told, 
however, why the mystery-names, far less known than their substitutes 
have ever been, should not have been given out if the 
blessed "Thrones" enjoyed the smallest confidence. But, it must have 
been "small" indeed, since one finds the "Seven Archangels" demanding 
their restitution for 34 years, and refusing positively to be called 
by any other name, and the church still deaf to their desires. The 
Occultists do not conceal the reason why they have ceased to use 
them: they are dangerously magical. But why should the Church fear 
them? Have not the Apostles, and Peter pre-eminently, been 
told "whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven," and were 
they not given power over every demon known and unknown? 
Nevertheless, some of the mystery names may be still found along with 
their substitutes in old Roman missals printed in 1563. There is one 
in the Barberini library with the whole mass-service in it, and the 
forbidden truly Sabian names of the seven "great gods" flashing out 
ominously hither and thither.

The "gods" lost patience once more. Acting in a truly Jehovistic 
spirit with their "stiff-necked" worshippers, they sent a plague. A 
terrible epidemic of obsession and possession broke out in 
1553, "when almost all Rome found itself possessed by the devil," 
says de Mirville (without explaining whether the clergy were 
included). Then only Duca's wish was realized. His seven Inspirers 
were invoked in their own names, and "the epidemic ceased as by 
enchantment, the blessed ones," adds the chronicler, "proving by the 
divine powers they possessed, once more, that they had nothing in 
common with the demons of the same name,"--i.e., the Chaldean gods.7

"Then Michael Angelo was summoned in all haste by Paul IV to the 
Vatican." His magnificent plan was accepted and the building of the 
former church begun. Its construction lasted over three years. In the 
archives of this now celebrated edifice, one can read that: "the 
narrative of the miracles that occurred during that period could not 
be undertaken, as it was one incessant miracle of three years' 
duration." In the presence of all his cardinals, Pope Paul lV ordered 
that the seven names, as originally written on the picture, should be 
restored, and inscribed around the large copy from it that surmounts 
to this day the high altar.

The admirable temple was consecrated to the Seven Angels in 1561. The 
object of the Spirits was reached; three years later, nearly 
simultaneously, Michael Angelo and Antonio Duca both died. They were 
no longer wanted.

Duca was the first person buried in the church for the erection of 
which he had fought the best part of his life and finally procured 
for his heavenly patrons. On his tomb the summary of the revelations 
obtained by him, as also the catalogue of the prayers and 
invocations, of the penances and fasts used as means of getting 
the "blessed" revelations and more frequent visits from the "Seven"--
are engraved. In the vestry a sight of the documents attesting to, 
and enumerating some of the phenomena of "the incessant miracle of 
three years' duration" may be obtained for a small fee. The record of 
the "miracles" bears the imprimatur of a Pope and several Cardinals, 
but it still lacks that of the Society for Psychic Research. 
The "Seven Angels" must be needing the latter badly, as without it 
their triumph will never be complete. Let us hope that the learned 
Spookical Researchers will send their "smart boy" to Rome at an early 
day, and that the "blessed ones" may find at Cambridge--a Duca.

But what became of the "mystery names" so cautiously used and what of 
the new ones? First of all came the substitution of the name of 
Eudiel for one of the Kabalistic names. Just one hundred years later, 
all the seven names suddenly disappeared, by order of the Cardinal 
Albitius. In the old and venerable Church of Santa Maria della Pieta 
on the Piazza Colonna, the "miraculous" painting of the Seven 
Archangels may be still seen, but the names have been scratched out 
and the places repainted. Sic transit gloria. A little while after 
that the mass and vesper services of the "Seven" were once more 
eliminated from the missals used, notwithstanding that "they are 
quite distinct" from those of the "planetary Spirits" who used to 
help Bishop Adalbert. But as "the robe does not really make the 
monk," so the change of names cannot prevent the individuals that had 
them from being the same as they were before. They are still 
worshipped and this is all that my article aims to prove.

Will this be denied? In that case I have to remind the readers hat so 
late as in 1825, a Spanish grandee supported by the Archbishop of 
Palermo made an attempt before Leo XII for the simultaneous re-
establishment of the service and names. The Pope ranted the Church 
service but refused the permission to use e old names.8

"This service, perfected and amplified by order of Paul IV, the 
minutes of which exist to this day at the Vatican and the Minerva, 
remained in force during the whole pontificate of Leo X." he Jesuits 
were those who rejoiced the most at the resurrection of the old 
worship, in view of the prodigious help they received from it, as it 
ensured the success of their proselytising efforts in e Philippine 
Islands. Pope Pius V conceded the same "divine service" to Spain, 
saying in his Bull, that "one could never exalt too much these seven 
Rectors of the world, figured by the SEVEN PLANETS," and 
that . . . "it looked consoling and augured well for this century, 
that by the grace of God, the cult of these seven ardent lights, and 
these seven stars, was regaining all its lustre in e Christian 
republic."9

The same "holy Pope permitted moreover to the nuns of Matritensis to 
establish the fête of JEHUDIEL the patron of their convent." Whether 
another less pagan name has now been substituted it we are not 
informed--nor does it in the least matter.

In 1832 the same demand in a petition to spread the worship of 
the "Seven Spirits of God," was reiterated, endorsed this time by 
eighty-seven bishops and thousands of officials with high-sounding 
names in the Church of Rome. Again, in 1858, Cardinal Patrizzi and 
King Ferdinand II in the name of all the people of Italy reiterated 
their petition; and again, finally, in 1862. Thus, the Church 
services in honour of the seven "Spirit-Stars" have never been 
abrogated since 1825. To this day they are in full vigour in Palermo, 
in Spain, and even in Rome at "St. Mary of the Angels" and the "Gésu"-
-though entirely suppressed everywhere else; all this "because of 
Adalbert's heresy," de Mirville and the other supporters of Star-
Angel worship are pleased to say. In reality there is no reason but 
the one already disclosed for it. Even the seven substitutes, 
especially the last four, have been too openly connected with black 
magic and astrology.

Writers of the de Mirville type are in despair. Not daring to blame 
the Church, they vent their wrath upon the old Alchemists and 
Rosicrucians. They clamour for the restitution of a public worship 
notwithstanding; and the imposing association formed since 1862 in 
Italy, Bavaria, Spain and elsewhere for the reestablishment of the 
cult of the Seven Spirits in all its fullness and in all Catholic 
Europe, gives hope that in a few years more the Seven Rishis of India 
now happily domiciled in the constellation of the Great Bear will 
become by the grace and will of some infallible Pontiff of Rome the 
legal and honoured divine patrons of Christendom.

And why not, since (St.) George is to this day, "the patron Saint of 
not only Holy Russia, Protestant Germany, fairy Venice, but also of 
merry England, whose soldiers,"--says W. M. Braithwaite,10--"would 
uphold his prestige with their heart's blood." And surely our "Seven 
gods" cannot be worse than was the rascally George of Cappadocia 
during his lifetime!

Hence, with the courage of true believers, the Christian defenders of 
the Seven Star-Angels deny nothing, at any rate they keep silent 
whenever accused of rendering divine honours to Chaldean and other 
gods. They even admit the identity and proudly confess to the charge 
of star-worshipping. The accusation has been thrown many a time by 
the French Academicians into the teeth of their late leader, the 
Marquis de Mirville, and this is what he writes in reply:

"We are accused of mistaking stars for angels. The charge is 
acquiring such a wide notoriety that we are forced to answer it very 
seriously. It is impossible that we should try to dissimulate it 
without failing in frankness and courage, since this pretended 
mistake is repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our theology. 
We shall examine . . . this opinion hitherto so accredited, today 
discredited, and which attributes rightly to our SEVEN PRINCIPAL 
SPIRITS the rulership, not of the seven known planets, with which we 
are reproached, but of the seven PRINCIPAL planets11--which is quite 
a different thing."12

And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet, the 
astronomer, who sought to prove in an able article of the Revue des 
Deux Mondes (May, 1885), that in reality besides the earth we had 
only SEVEN big planets.

The "seven principal planets" is another confession to the acceptance 
of a purely occult tenet. Every planet according to the esoteric 
doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like man, in its 
principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical body 
of the sidereal being the Atma or Spirit of which is the Angel, or 
Rishi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call it. This belief 
as the occultists will see (read in Esoteric Buddhism about the 
constitution of the planets) is thoroughly occult. It is a tenet of 
the Secret Doctrine--minus its idolatrous element--pure and simple. 
As taught in the Church and her rituals, however, and especially, as 
practised, it is ASTROLATRY as pure and as simple. There is no need 
to show here the difference between teaching, or theory, and practice 
in the holy Roman Catholic Church. The words "Jesuit" and "Jesuitism" 
cover the whole ground. The Spirit of Truth has departed ages ago--if 
it has ever been near it--from the Church of Rome. At this, the 
Protestant Church, so full of brotherly spirit and love for her 
sister Church, will say, Amen. The Dissenter, whose heart is as full 
of the love of Jesus as of hatred towards Ritualism and its mother 
Popery, will chuckle.

In the editorial of the Times for November 7, 1866, stands "A 
Terrible Indictment" against the Protestants, which says:

Under the influence of the Episcopal Bench, all the studies connected 
with theology have withered, until English Biblical critics are the 
scorn of foreign scholars. Whenever we take up the work of a 
theologian who is likely to be a Dean or a Bishop, we find, not an 
earnest inquirer setting forth the results of honest research, but 
merely an advocate, who, we can perceive, has begun his work with the 
fixed determination of proving black white in favour of his own 
traditional system.

If the Protestants do not recognize the "Seven Angels," nor, while 
refusing them divine worship, do they feel ashamed and afraid of 
their names, as the Roman Catholics do, on the other hand they are 
guilty of "Jesuitism" of another kind, just as bad. For, while 
professing to believe the Scriptures a direct Revelation from God, 
not one sentence of which should be altered under the penalty of 
eternal damnation, they yet tremble and cower before the discoveries 
of science, and try to pander to their great enemy. Geology, 
Anthropology, Ethnology and Astronomy, are to them what Uriel, 
Scaltiel, Jehudiel and Barachiel are to the Roman Catholic Church. It 
is six of one and half a dozen of the other. And since neither one 
nor the other of the two religions will abstain from anathematizing, 
slandering and persecuting Magic, Occultism, and even Theosophy, it 
is but just and proper that in their turn the Students of the Sacred 
Science of old should retort at last, and keep on telling the truth 
fearlessly to the faces of both.


MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PREVALEBIT

       
H. P.
B.
Lucifer, July, 1888