Table-turning : A form of psychic phenomena in which a table is made to rotate, tilt, or rise completely off the ground by the mere contact of the operator’s finger-tips, and without the conscious exercise of muscular force, The modus operandi is exceedingly simple. The sitters take their places round a table, on which they lightly rest their finger-tips, thus forming a "chain." In a few moments the table begins to rotate, and may even move about the room, seemingly carrying the experimenters with it. It was, and is, in high favour among spiritualists as a means of communicating with the spiritual world. The alphabet was slowly repeated, or a pencil was run down the printed alphabet, the table tilting at the letter which the spirits desired to indicate. Thus were dictated sermons, poems, information regarding the spirit-world, and answers to questions put by the sitters. Table-turning, in common with most spiritualistic phenomena, originated in America. It rapidly spread to Europe, and early in 1853 reached Britain, where it soon became immensely popular, and for the time replaced the earlier method of communication by means of raps. It commended itself to the public mainly because the services of an expensive professional medium were not required. In all parts of the country and in every grade of society the popular craze was practised with enthusiasm, and in this case as in others the results increased proportionately with the credibility of the sitters. In these earlier stages of the proceedings the gyrations of the table were attributed entirely to spirit agencies. So serious did matters become at last that men of science could no longer ignore the "manifestations," and were forced to turn the light of scientific knowledge on the phenomenon of table-turning and endeavour to explain it on rational grounds. Foremost among these distinguished investigators was the chemist Faraday, who showed by means of simple apparatus of his own devising that the movements of the table were due to unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters, who were thus themselves the automatic authors of the messages purporting to come from the spirit world. Faraday’s apparatus consisted of two thin wooden boards with little glass rollers between, the whole bound together with rubber bands, and so contrived that the slightest lateral pressure on the upper board would cause it to slip a little way over the other. A haystalk or a scrap of paper served to indicate any motion of the upper board over the lower. The conclusion drawn from these experiments was that when the sitters believed themselves to be pressing downwards, they were really pressing obliquely, in the direction they expected the table to rotate. Other investigators also held that the expectation of the operators had a good deal to do with the motions of the table. Braid pointed out in the appendix to his Hypnotic Therapeutics that some one generally announced beforehand the direction in which the table would rotate, and so encouraged the expectation of the operators. Another authority, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, shared the same view, as did a committee of four medical men who published their experiences of table-turning in the Medical Times and Gazette Among the earliest investigators of the phenomena of tablet-turning were count de Gasparin and Professor Thury of Geneva, who held seances, and were satisfied that the movements resulted from a force radiating from the operators, to which they gave the name of" ectenic force." There were others, however, who were less rational in their attempts to explain the phenomenon. The public were on the whole indisposed to accept the conclusions of Faraday and the rest. They preferred the more popular spiritualistic explanations or the pseudo-scientific theories of such men as Dr. Koch, who believed that the " chain of operators formed a sort of electric battery which supplied the table with vital energy or, as it was called, " electro-odyllic" force, and made it respond to the will as though it were a part of the human body. Other explanations offered were odic force, galvanism, animal magnetism, and, strangest notion of all, the rotation of the earth! In an anonymous pamphlet published during the table-turning epidemic and entitled Table-turning considered in connection with the dictates of reason and common sense, the conclusions of Faraday are ridiculed, and an electrical theory advanced, in such a way, however, as to show that the writer is quite ignorant of his subject. Another pamphlet, also anonymous, entitled Table-turning by Animal Magnetism demonstrated ascribes the phenomenon to magnetism, and bases it’s suppositions on the results of some experiments in which the table was isolated by glass or gutta-percha. Dr. Elliotson and the other believers in a mesmeric " fluid" which would affect inanimate objects as well as living beings, saw in table-turning a support for their views. The Rev. G. Sandby and the Rev. C. H. Townshend, claimed to have experienced a feeling of fatigue after a table-turning seance as though they had been hypnotising someone. They also felt a tingling sensation in their finger-tips, and Townshend suggested that spirit rappings may be caused by a "disengagement of Zoogen from the System." Dr. Elliotson himself followed with an admission that the phenomenon was not explicable within the bounds of muscular force. There was another set, mainly composed of Evangelical clergymen, who credited the whole business to Satanic agency. The Rev. N. S. Godfrey, the Rev. E. Gillson, and others held seances in which the " spirits " confessed themselves to be either the spirit’s of worthless persons of evil inclination, or devils, both of which confessions caused the reverend gentlemen to denounce the whole practice of table-turning. One of them remarks, apropos of Faraday’s experiments, that the phenomena "appear to be whatever the investigator supposes them to be," a saying which aptly characterises their own attitude.

Camille Flammarion, whose exhaustive experiments and scientific attainments give to his opinion considerable weight, has offered an explanation of the various phases of table-turning phenomena. Simple rotation of the table he ascribes to an unconscious impulse given by the operators and other movements (;f the table while the fingers of the sitter’s rest upon it are ascribed to similar causes. The tilting of the table on the side furthest away from the operator can also be explained by muscular action. But vibrations in the wood of the table, or its levitation under the fingers, or, to a still greater extent, its rotation without contact of the operator’s hands, he attributes to a force emanating from the body, and, in the latter case, capable of acting at a distance by means of ether-waves. This force, the result of a cerebral disturbance, is greater than that of the muscles, as is seen by the levitation of tables so weighted that the combined muscular strength of the operators would not suffice to lift it. To the dictating of meessages and other intelligent manifestations he would also give an origin in this psychic force, which is perhaps identical with Thury’s " ectenic" force, or " psychode," and which is obedient to the will and desires, or even, in some cases; the subconscious will of the operator. The hypothesis of spirits he does not consider necessary. It is possible, however, that fraud may have crept into the seances of M. Flammarion, as it has done in so many other cases. And there are those among the most profound students of psychic research who find in unconscious muscular action and deliberate fraud a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena.

Taboo, Tabu or Tapu : A Polynesian word meaning "prohibited " and signifying a prohibition enforced by religious or magical power, which has come to be applied to similar usages among savage peoples all over the world. Taboo, or prohibition is enforced in the cases of sacred things and unclean things. In the first instance, the taboo is placed on the object because of the possession by it of inherent mysterious power. But, taboo may be imposed by a chief or priest. It aims at the protection of important individuals; the safeguarding of the weak, women, children and slaves from the magical influence of more highly-placed individuals; against danger incurred by handling or coming in contact with corpses; or eating certain foods; and the securing of human beings against the power of supernatural agencies, or the depredations of thieves. Taboo may also be sanctioned by social use or instinct. The violation of a taboo makes the offender himself taboo, for it is characteristic of the taboo that it is transmissible, but can be thrown off by magical or purificatory ceremonies. It may last for a short period, or be imposed in perpetuity. It may be said, generally speaking, that the practice of taboo was instituted through human instinct for human convenience. This applies of course merely to the most simple type of taboo. It is, for example, for bidden to reap or steal the patch of corn dedicated to an agricultural deity, for the simple reason that his wrath would be incurred by so doing. Similarly it is taboo to devour the flesh of the totem animal of the tribe, except in special circumstances with the object of achieving communion with him. It is taboo to interfere in any manner with the affairs of the shamans or medicine-men: this again is a type of the imposed taboo for the convenience of a certain caste. It is prohibited to marry a woman of the same totem as oneself, as all the members of a totemic band are supposed to be consanguineous, and such a union might incur the wrath of the patron deity. A very strict taboo is put upon the beholding of certain ritual instruments belonging to some barbarian tribes, but this only applies to women and uninitiated men: the reason for such taboo would be that it was considered degradation for women to behold sacred implements. Taboo, if it does not spring directly from the system known as totemism, was strongly influenced by it-that is, many intricate taboos arose from the totemic system. We have also the taboo of the sorcerer, which in effect is merely a spell placed upon a certain object, which makes it become useless to others. Taboo, or its remains, is still to be found in strong force even in the most civilised communities, and from its use the feeling of reverence for ancient institutions and those who represent them is undoubtedly derived.

Tadebtsois : Spirits believed in by the Samoyeds. (See Siberia.)

Tadibe : The name for a Samoyed magician. (See Siberia.)

Taigheirm : A magical sacrifice of cats to the infernal spirits, formerly practised in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It is believed to have been originally a ceremony of sacrifice to the subterranean gods, imported from more northern lands, which became in Christian times an invocation of infernal spirits. The word " Taigheirm signifies either an armoury, or the cry of a cat, according to the sense in which it is used. A description of the ceremony, which must be performed with black cats, is given in Horst’s Deuteroscopy : " After the cats were dedicated to all the devils. and put into a magico-sympathetic condition by the shameful things done to them, and the agony occasioned them, one of them was at once put upon the spit, and, amid terrific howlings, roasted before a slow fire. The moment that the howls of one tortured cat ceased in death, another was put upon the spit, for a minute of interval must not take place if they would control hell; and this continued for the four entire days and nights. If the exorcist could hold it out still longer, and even till his physical powers were absolutely exhausted, he must do so." When the horrible rites had been continued for a time the demons began to appear in the shape of black cats, who mingled their dismal cries with those of the unfortunate sacrifices. At length a cat appeared of larger size and more frightful aspect than the others, and the time had come for the exorcist to make known his demands. Usually he asked for the gift of second sight, but other rewards might be asked for and received. The last Taigheirm was said to have been held in Mull about the middle of the seventeenth century. The exorcists were Allan Maclean and his assistant Lachlain Maclean, both of whom received the second sight. Of this particular ceremony Horst says: "The infernal spirits appeared some in the early progress of the sacrifices, in the shape of black cats. The first who appeared during the sacrifice, after they had cast a furious glance at the sacrifices, said Lachlain Oer, that is, Injurer of Cats. Allan, the chief operator, warned Lachlain, whatever he might see or hear, not to waver, but to keep the spit incessantly turning. At length the cat of monstrous size appeared and after it had set up a horrible howl, said to Lachlain Oer, that if he did not cease before their largest brother came he would never see the face of God. Lachlain answered that he would not cease till he had finished his work if all the devils in hell came. At the end of the fourth day, there sat on the end of the beam in the roof of the barn a black cat with fire-flaming eyes, and there was heard a terrific howl quite across the straits of Mull into Mowen." By this time the elder of the two men was quite exhausted, and sank down in a swoon, but the younger was sufficiently self-possessed to ask for wealth and prosperity, which both received throughout their life-time. Shortly before this, Cameron of Lochiel received at a Taigheirm a small silvershoe which, put on the foot of a new-born son of his family, would give courage and fortitude to the child. One boy, however, had at his birth, a foot too large for the shoe, a defect inherited from his mother, who was not a Cameron. His lack of the magically bestowed courage was apparent at Sheriffmuir, where he fled before the enemy.

Tales of Terror : by Matthew Lewis. (See Fiction, Occult English.)

Talisman : An inanimate object which is supposed to possess a supernatural capacity of conferring benefits or powers in contradistinction to the amulet (q.v.), the purpose of which is to ward off evil. It was usually a disc of metal or stone engraved with astrological or magical figures. Talismans were common in ancient Egypt and Babylon. The virtues of astrological talismans were as follows : The astrological figure of Mercury, engraven upon silver, which is the corresponding metal, and according to the prescribed rites, gave success in Merchandise ; that of Mars gave victory to the soldier that of Venus, beauty, and so of the rest. All such talismans likewise are more powerful in the hour of their planets ascendency. There are three general varieties of these potent charms : 1. The astronomical, having the characters of the heavenly signs or constellations. 2. The magical, with extraordinary figures, superstitious words, or the names of angels. 3. The mixed, engraven with celestial signs and barbarous words. To these, Fosbrook, in his Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, adds two others -4. The sigilla planetarum, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by astrologers and fortune-tellers; and 5. Hebrew names and characters. As an example of the most powerful of the latter, may be mentioned the sacred name of Jehovah. The famous tephillin or phylacteries, used in Jewish devotion, and which were bound on the head, the arm, and the hand, may be regarded as talismans, and they were the subject of many traditional ceremonies. We may also mention the mezuzoth or schedules for door-posts, and another article of this description mentioned in the following quotation from the Talmud :-" Whoever has the telphillin bound to his head and arm, and the tsitsith thrown over his garments, and the mezuza fixed on his door-post, is protected from sin."

Writing of talismans in his Occult Sciences, Mr. A. E. Waite says

"I. The Talisman of the Sun must be composed of a pure and fine gold, fashioned into a circular plate, and well polished on either side. A serpentine circle, enclosed by a pentagram must be engraved on the obverse side with a diamond-pointed graving tool. The reverse must bear a human head in the centre of the six-pointed star of Solomon, which shall itself be surrounded with the name of the solar intelligence Pi-Rhe, written in the characters of the Magi. This talisman is supposed to insure to its bearer the goodwill of influential persons. It is a preservative against death by heart disease, syncope, aneurism, and epidemic complaints. It must be composed on a Sunday during the passage of the moon through Leo, and when that luminary is in a favourable aspect with Saturn and the Sun. The consecration consists in the exposure of the talisman to the smoke of a perfume composed of cinnamon, incense, saffron, and red sandal, burnt with laurel-wood, and twigs of dessicated heliotrope, in a new chafing-dish, which must be ground into powder and buried in an isolated spot, after the operation is finished. The talisman must be afterwards encased in a satchel of bright yellow silk, which must be fastened on the breast l)y an interlaced ribbon of the same material, tied in the form of a cross. In all cases the ceremony should be preceded by the conjuration of the Four, to which the reader has already been referred. The form of consecration, accompanied by sprinkling with holy water, may be rendered in the following manner

"In the name of Elohim, and by the spirit of the living waters, be thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal of will.

"Presenting it to the smoke of the perfumes -By the brazen serpent before which fell the serpents of fire, be thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal of will.

"Breathing seven times upon the talisman -By the firmament and the spirit of the voice, be thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal of will.

"Lastly, when placing some grains of purified earth or salt upon the pentacle -In the name of the salt of the earth and by virtue of the life eternal, be thou unto me as a sign of light and a seal of will.

"II. The Talisman of the Moon should be composed of a circular and well-polished plate of the purest silver, being of the dimensions of an ordinary medal. The image of a crescent, enclosed in a pentagram, should be graven on the obverse side. On the reverse side, a chalice must be encircled by the duadic seal of Solomon, encompassed by the letters of the lunar genius Pi-Job. This talisman is considered a protection to travellers, and to sojourners in strange lands. It preserves from death by drowning, by epilepsy, by dropsy, by apoplexy, and madness. The dangers of a violent end which is predicted by Saturnian aspects in horoscopes of nativity, may be removed by it’s means. It should be composed on a Monday, when the moon is passing through the first ten degrees of Capricornus or Virgo, and is also well aspected with Saturn. Its consecration consists in exposure to a perfume composed of white sandal, camphor, aloes, amber, and pulverised seed of cucumber, burnt with dessicated stalks of mugwort, moonwort, and ranunculus, in a new earthen chafing-dish, which must be reduced, after the operation, into powder, and buried in a deserted spot. The talisman must be sewn up in a satchel of white silk, and fixed on the breast by a ribbon of the same colour, interlaced and tied in the form of a cross.

"III. The Talisman of Mars must be composed of a well-polished circular plate of the finest iron, and of the dimensions of an ordinary medal. The symbol of a sword in the centre of a pentagram must be engraved on the obverse side. A lions head surrounded by a six-pointed star must appear on the reverse face, with the letters of the name Erotosi, the planetary genius of Mars, above the outer angles. This talisman passes as a preservative against all combinations of enemies. It averts the chance of death in brawls and battles, in epidemics and fevers, and by corroding ulcers. It also neutralizes the peril of a violent end as a punishment for crime when it is foretold in the horoscope of the nativity.

"This talisman must be composed on a Tuesday, during the passage of the moon through the ten first degrees of Aries or Sagittarius, and when, moreover, it is favourably aspected with Saturn and Mars. The consecration consists in its exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of dried absinth and rue, burnt in an earthen vessel which has never been previously used, and which must be broken into powder, and buried in a secluded place, when the operation is completed. Finally, the talisman must be sewn up in a satchel of red silk, and fastened on the breast with ribbons of the same material folded and knotted in the form of a cross.

"IV. The Talisman of Mercury must be formed of a circular plate of fixed quicksilver, or according to another account of an amalgam of silver, mercury, and pewter, of the dimensions of an ordinary medal, well-polished on both sides. A winged caduceus, having two serpents twining about it, must be engraved in the centre of a pentagram on the obverse side. The other must bear a dog’s head within the star of Solomon, the latter being surrounded with the name of the planetary genius, Pi-Hermes, written in the alphabet of the Magi. This talisman must be composed on a Wednesday, when the moon is passing through the ten first degrees of Gemini or Scorpio, and is well aspected with Saturn and Mercury. The consecration consists in its -exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of benzoin, macis, and storax, burnt with the dried stalks of the lily, the narcissus, fumitory, and marjolane, placed in a clay chafing-dish which has never been devoted to any other purpose, and which must, after the completion of the task, be reduced to powder and buried in an undisturbed place. The Talisman of Mercury is judged to be a defence in all species of commerce and business industry. Buried under the ground in a house of commerce, it will draw customers and prosperity. It preserves all who wear it from epilepsy and madness. It averts death by murder and poison; it is a safeguard against the schemes of treason and it procures prophetic dreams when it is worn on the head during sleep. It is fastened on the breast by a ribbon of purple silk folded and tied in the form of a cross, and the talisman is itself enclosed in a satchel of the same material.

"V. The Talisman of Jupiter must be formed of a circular plate of the purest English pewter, having the dimensions of an ordinary medal, and being highly polished on either side. The image of a four-pointed crown in the centre of a pentagram must be engraved on the obverse side. On the other must be the head of an eagle in the centre of the six-pointed star of Solomon, which must be surrounded by the name of the planetary genius Pi-Zeous, written in the arcane alphabet.

"This talisman must be composed on a Thursday, during the passage of the moon through the first ten degrees of Libra, and when it is also in a favourable aspect with Saturn and Jupiter. The consecration consists in its exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of incense, ambergris, balm, grain of Paradise, saffron, and macis, which is the second coat of the nutmeg. These must be burnt with wood of the oak, poplar, fig tree, and pomegranate, and placed in a new earthen dish, which must be ground into powder, and buried in a quiet spot, at the end of the ceremony. The talisman must be wrapped in a satchel of sky-blue silk, suspended on the breast by a ribbon of the same material, folded and fastened in the form of a cross.

"The Talisman of Jupiter is held to attract to the wearer the benevolence and sympathy of everyone. It averts anxieties, favours honourable enterprises, and augments well-being in proportion to social condition. It is a protection against unforeseen accidents, and the perils of a violent death when it is threatened by Saturn in the horoscope of nativity. It also preserves from death by affections of the liver, by inflammation of the lungs, and by that cruel affection of the spinal marrow, which is termed tabes dorsalis in medicine.

"VI. The Talisman of Venus must be formed of a circular plate of purified and well-polished copper. It must be of the ordinary dimensions of a medal, perfectly polished on both its sides. It must bear on the obverse face the letter G inscribed in the alphabet of the Magi, and enclosed in a pentagram. A dove must be engraved on the reverse, in the centre of the six-pointed star, which must be surrounded by the letters which compose the name of the planetary Genius Suroth. This talisman must be composed on a Friday, during the passage of the moon through the first ten degrees of Taurus or Virgo, and when that luminary is well aspected with Saturn and Venus. Its consecration consists in its exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of violets and roses, burnt with olive wood in a new earthen chafing-dish, which must be ground into powder at the end of the operation and buried in a solitary spot. The talisman must, finally, be sewn up in a satchel of green or rose-coloured silk, which must be fastened on the breast by a band of the same material, folded and tied in the form of a cross.

"The Talisman of Venus is accredited with extraordinary power in cementing the bonds of love and harmony between husbands and wives. It averts from those who wear it the spite and machinations of hatred. It preserves women from the terrible and fatal diseases which are known as cancer. It averts from both men and women all danger of death, to which they may be accidentally or purposely exposed. It counterbalances the unfortunate presages which may appear in the horoscope of nativity. Its last and most singular quality is its power to change the animosity of an enemy into a love and devotion which will be proof against every temptation, and it rests on the sole condition that such a person should be persuaded to partake of a liquid in which the talisman has been dipped.

"VII. The Talisman of Saturn must be composed of a circular plate of refined and purified lead, being of the dimensions of an ordinary medal, elaborately polished. On the obverse side must be engraven with the diamond-pointed tool which is requisite in all these talismanic operations, the image of a sickle enclosed in a pentagram. The reverse side must bear a bull’s head, enclosed in the star of Solomon, and surrounded by the mysterious letters which compose, in the alphabet of the Magi, the name of the planetary Genius Tempha. The person who is intended to wear this talisman must engrave it himself, without witnesses, and without taking any one into his confidence.

"This talisman must be composed on a Saturday when the moon is passing through the first ten degrees of Taurus or Capricorn, and is favourably aspected with Saturn. It must be consecrated by exposure to the smoke of a perfume composed of alum, assa-foetida, cammonee, and sulphur, which must be burnt with cypress, the wood of the ash tree, and sprays of black hellebore, in a new earthen chafing-dish, which must be reduced into powder at the end of the performance, and buried in a deserted place. The talisman must, finally, be sewn up in a satchel of black silk and fastened on the breast with a ribbon of the same material, folded and tied in the form of a cross. The Talisman of Saturn was affirmed to be a safeguard against death by apoplexy and cancer, decay in the bones, consumption, dropsy, paralysis, and decline; it was also a preservative against the possibility of being entombed in a trance, against the danger of violent death by secret crime, poison, or ambush. If the head of the army in war-time were to bury the Talisman of Saturn in a place which it was feared might fall into the hands of the enemy, the limit assigned by the presence of the talisman could not be overstepped by the opposing host, which would speedily withdraw in discouragement, or in the face of a determined assault."      (See Ceremonial Magic.)

Talmud, The : From the Hebrew lamad, to learn; the name of the great code of Jewish civil and canonical law. It is divided into two portions-the Mishna and the Gemara; the former constituted the text and the latter was a commentary and supplement. But besides being the basis of a legal code, it is also a collection of Jewish poetry and legend. The Mishna is a development of the laws contained in the Pentateuch. It is divided into six sedarim or orders, each containing a number of tractates, which are again divided into peraqim or chapters. The sedarim are :

(1) Zeraim, which deals with agriculture (2) Moed, with festivals and sacrifices ; (3) Nashim, with the law regarding women ; (4) Nezaqin, with civil law (5) Qodashim, with the sacrificial law ; and (6) Tohoroth or Tak, with purifications. The Mishna was supposed to have been handed down by Ezra and to be in part the work of Joshua, David or Solomon, and originally communicated orally by the Deity in the time of Moses. There are two recensions-the Talmud of Jerusalem, and the Talmud of Babylon; which latter besides the sedarim mentioned contains seven additional treatises which are regarded as extra-canonical. The first is supposed to have been finally edited towards the close of the fourth century A.D., and the second by Rabbi Ashi, President of the Academy of Syro in Babylon, somewhere in the fourth century. Though revised from time to time before then, both versions have been greatly corrupted through the interpolation of gross traditions. The rabbinical decisions in the Mishna are entitled helacoth and the traditional narratives haggadah. The cosmogony of the Talmud assumes that the universe has been developed by means of a series of cataclysms world after world was destroyed until the Creator made the present globe and saw that it was good. In the wonderful treatise on the subject by Deutsch which first appeared in the Quarterly Review in 1867, and is reprinted in his Literary Remains, the following passage appears:-

"The how of the creation was not mere matter of speculation. The co-operation of angels, whose existence was warranted by Scripture, and a whole hierarchy of whom had been built up under Persian influences, "as distinctly denied. In a discussion about the day of their creation, it is agreed on all hands that there were no angels at first, lest men might say, Michael spanned out the firmament on the south, and Gabriel to the north. There is a distinct foreshadowing of the Gnostic Demiurgos-that antique link between the Divine Spirit and the world of matter-to be found in the Talmud. What with Plato were the Ideas, with Philo the Logos, with the Kabalists the World of Aziluth, what the Gnostics called more emphatically the wisdom (sophia), or power (dunamis), and Plotinus the nous, that the Talmudical authors call Metation. There is a good deal, in the post-captivity Talmud, about the Angels, borrowed from the Persian. The Archangels or Angelic princes are seven in number, and their Hebrew names and functions correspond almost exactly to those of their Persian prototypes. There are also hosts of ministering angels, the Persian Yazatas, whose functions, besides that of being messengers, were two-fold- to praise God and to be guardians of man. In their first capacity they are daily created by God’s breath out of a stream of fire that rolls its waves under the supernal throne. In their second, two of them accompany every man, and for every new good deed man acquires a new guardian angel, who always watches over his steps. When a righteous man died, three hosts of angels descend from the celestial battlements to meet him. One says (in the words of Scripture), He shall go in peace ; the second takes up the strain and says, Who has walked in righteousness; and the third concludes, Let him come in peace and rest upon his bed. In like manner, when the wicked man passes away, three hosts of wicked angels are ready to escort him, but their address is not couched in any spirit of consolation or encouragement."

It would be impossible in this place to give a resume of the traditional matter contained in the Talmud. Suffice it to say that it is of great extent. It has been considered by some authorities that a great many of the traditional tales have a magical basis, and that magical secrets are contained in them; but this depends entirely upon the interpretation put upon them, and the subject is one which necessitates the closest possible study.

Tam O’ Shanter (See Scotland.)

Tannhauser : A medieval German legend which relates how a minstrel and knight of that name, passing by the Horselberg, or Hill of Venus, entered therein in answer to a call, and remained there with the enchantress, living an unholy life. After a time he grew weary of sin, and longing to return to clean living, he for swore the worship of Venus and left her. He then made a pilgrimage to Rome, to ask pardon of the Pope, but when he was told by Urban IV., himself that the papal staff would as soon blossom as such a sinner as Tannhauser be forgiven, he returned to Venus. Three days later, the Pope’s staff did actually blossom, and he sent messengers into every country to find the despairing minstrel, but to no purpose, Tannhauser had disappeared. The story has a mythological basis which has been laid over by medieval Christian thought, and the original hero of which has been displaced by a more modern personage, just as the Venus of the existing legend is the mythological Venus only in name. She is really the Lady Holda, a German earth-goddess. Tannhauser was a " minnesinger " or love-minstrel of the middle of the thirteenth century. He was very popular among the minnesingers of that time and the restless and intemperate life he led probably marked him out as the hero of such a legend as has been recounted. He was the author of many ballads of considerable excellence, which are published in the second part of the " Minnesinger" (Von der Hagen, Leipsic, 1838) and in the sixth volume of Haupt’s Zeitschrift fur deutsches Althertum. The most authentic version of this legend is given in Uhland’s Alte hock und niederdeuteche Volhslieder (Stuttgart, 1845).

Tappan-Richmond, Mrs. Cora L. V. : Perhaps the best known of all the inspirational speakers who have appeared since the beginning of the spiritualistic movement. As a child Mrs. Tappan-Richmond-then Miss Scott-spent some time in the Hopedale Community (q.v.), so that she was early initiated into the mysteries of spiritualism. At the age of sixteen she went to New York, and became an inspired " lecturer on spiritualism, in which capacity she soon became famous throughout America. Coming to Britain in 1873 she was warmly received by the spiritualists in this country, and for a number of years gave frequent trance discourses, characterised by their rhythm and fluency, and the comparative clarity of their ideas.

Tarot, or Tarots : is the French name for a species of playing-cards, originally used for the purpose of divination, and still employed by fortune-tellers. Tarot cards, however, form part of an ordinary pack in certain countries of southern Europe, whence the name of tarocchi given to an Italian game. The derivation of the word is uncertain. One suggestion is that these cards were so called because they were tarotees on the back; that is, marked with plain or dotted lines crossing diagonally. Confirmation of this theory may be found in the German form of the word a tarock-karie being a card chequered on the back. Not improbably, however, there is here a confusion between cause and effect.

De l’ Hoste Ranking, who dismisses as " obviously worthless" the explanations of Count de Gebelin, Vaillant and Mathers, refers the name to the Hungarian Gipsy tar, a pack of cards, and thence to the Hinddustani taru. The figures on these cards are emblematic, and are believed by many to embody the esoteric religion of ancient Egypt and India; but on this subject there is much difference of opinion.

"The tarot pack most in use," observes Ranking, " consists of seventy-eight cards, of which twenty-two are more properly known as the tarots, and are considered as the keys of the tarot ; these correspond with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or, according to Falconnier and to Margiotta, with the alphabet of the Magi. The suits are four : wands, sceptres, or clubs, answering to diamonds ; cups, chalices, or goblets, answering to hearts ; swords, answering to spades ; money, circles, or pentacles, answering to clubs. Each suit consists of fourteen cards, the ace, and nine others, and four court cards: king, queen, knight, and knave. The four aces form the keys of their respective suits." As already indicated, the twenty-two " keys of the tarot," which consist of various emblematic figures, are assumed to be hieroglyphic symbols of the occult meanings of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; or, alternatively, " the alphabet of the Magi." " Immense antiquity is claimed for these symbols," observes Ranking. " Alliette or (by transposition) Etteilla, a French mystic of the beginning of the nineteenth century, ascribed their origin to Hermes Trismegistus, under the name of The Book of Thoth, or The Golden Book of Hermes. Others have sought to identify the tarot with the sibylline leaves." Raymond Lully (1235-1315) is said to have based his great work, Ars Generalis sive Magna, on the application of the occult philosophy contained in the tarot.

The idea that the tarot was introduced into Europe by the Gypsies appears to have been first broached by Vaillant, who had lived for many years among the Gypsies, by whom he was instructed in their traditional lore. Much of the information thus obtained is incorporated in Les Romes, histoire vraie des vrais Bohemiens (c. 1853), La Bible des Bohemiens (1860), and La Clef Magique de la Fiction et du Fait (1863). Vaillant’s theory has been fully accepted by a French writer, " Papus," who published in 1889 Le Tarot des Bohimiens : Le Plus Ancien Livre du Monde describing it as " la clef absolue de la science occulte."

"The Gypsies possess a Bible," he asserts ; " yes, this card game called the Tarot which the Gypsies possess is. the Bible of Bibles. It is a marvellous book, as Count de Gebelin and especially Vaillant have realized. Under the names of Tarot, Thora, Rota, this game has formed successively the basis of the synthetic teaching of all the ancient peoples."

Although it may not be possible to accept this dictum in its entirety, it is of interest to note that Ranking concludes that these and all other playing-cards were introduced into Europe by the Gypsies. " I would submit, he says, writing in 1908, that from internal evidence we may deduce that the tarots were introduced by a race speaking an Indian dialect; that the form of the Pope (as portrayed in the tarots) shows they had been long in a country where the orthodox Eastern Church predominated; and the form of head-dress of the king, together with the shape of the eagle on the shield, shows that this was governed by Russian Grand Dukes, who had not yet assumed the Imperial insignia. This seems to me confirmatory of the widespread belief that it is to the Gypsies we are indebted for our knowledge of playing-cards." It will be seen that this conclusion is based upon independent judgment. As early, however, as 1865 - two years after the appearance of Vaillant’s last book-H. S. Taylor supported the same hypothesis in his History of Playing Cards. Willshire (Descriptive Catalogues of Cards in the British Museum, 1877) controverts Taylor’s conclusion, on the ground that "whether the Zingari be of Egyptian or Indian origin, they did not appear in Europe before 1417, when cards had been known for some time." But this objection is nullified by the fact that the presence of Gypsies, in Europe is now placed at a date considerably anterior to 1417. There was, for example, a well-established feudum Acinganorum, or Gypsy barony, in the island of Corfu in the fourteenth century.

To examine in detail the various emblematic figures of the tarot would demand a disproportionate amount of space. Ranking’s reference to the Pope and the King points to two of these twenty-two figures. The others are : the Female Pope, the Queen, Osiris Triumphant, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Prudence, Temperance, Strength, Marriage, The Philosopher, The Juggler, Death, The Devil, The Fool, The Lightning-struck Tower, The Sun, The Moon, The Star, The Universe, The Last Judgment. There is great diversity of opinion, even among initiates," as to the meaning of these symbols. They are very fully discussed in the work of Papus". already cited ; to which the reader is specially referred. On the whole, there is much to be said in favour of the theory that the origin of the tarot is traceable to the esoteric philosophy of the schools of ancient Egypt and Chaldea, by whatever means it has found its way into Europe. In addition to the works already cited, see Le Monde Primitif, by Count de Gebelin, Vol. VIII., Paris, 1781 Les Origines des Cartes a Jouer, by Merlin, Paris, 1869; The Tarot, by Mathers, London, 1888 ; L’Art de Tirer les Cartes, by Magus, Paris, 1895 ; Le walladisme, by Margistta, Grenoble, 1895 ; Magie, by Bourgeat, Paris, 1895; Les XXII. Lames Hermetiques du Tarot, by Falconnier, Paris, 1896; A. H. Waite; Key to the Tarot, 1910; and J.W. Brodi-Innes, The Tarot Cards, in the " Occult Review" for February, 1919. DAVID MACRITCHIE.

Tatwic Yoga : meaning " The Science of Breath." The title of a little book translated from the Sanscrit some years ago by the Pandit Rama Prasad. The "breath" referred to is the life-giving breath of Brahman, and in it are contained the five elementary principles of nature, corresponding to the five senses of man. These principles are know as Tatwas, and of them the body is composed. The knowledge of the Tatwas is believed to confer wonderful power; and to this end all undertakings must be commenced at times which are known to be propitious from the movements of the Tatwas in the body. An important method of yoga practice is given in the book, which will certainly assure marvellous results.

Taurabolmin : (See Mithraic Mysteries.)

Taxil, Leo : The pseudonum of M. Gabriel Jogaud-Pages, who in his works The Brethren of the Three Points and Are there Women in Freemasonry? has accused the Masonic Fraternity of the practice of Satanism and sorcery. His assertions are of the most debatable description.

Tears on Shutters : It is mentioned in Pennant’s Tour that in some parts of Scotland it was the custom, on the death of any person of distinction, to paint on the doors and window-shutters white tadpole-like shapes, on a black ground. These were intended to represent tears, and were a sign of general mourning.

Telekinesis : A term denoting the hypothetical faculty of moving material objects by thought alone. The movement of objects without contact-a frequent phenomenon of the seance-room, including in its wider sense rappings, table-tiltings, levitations, the conveyance of apports, practically all material phenomena, with the possible exception of materialisation-is exceeding difficult of explanation on rational grounds, and the attempt to explain it thus, without the intervention of discarnate spirits, has given rise to the telekinetic theory, which holds that all these varied feats are accomplished by the thoughts of medium and sitters, independent of muscular energy, whether direct or indirect. How thought can possibly act in this immediate way on inanimate matter is beyond comprehension in our present state of knowledge. The evidence for telekinesis is very much less than, say, that for telepathy. The telekinetic theory is akin to that offered by the magnetists, who regarded a fluidic or energetic emanation as the cause of the movements.

Telepathy : Of the various branches of psychic phenomena there is none which engages more serious attention at the present day than telepathy or thought transference. The idea of inter-communication between brain and brain, by other means than that of the ordinary sense-channels, is a theory deserving of the most careful consideration, not only in its simple aspect as a claimant for recognition as an important scientific fact, but also because there is practically no department of psychic phenomena on which it has not some bearing. To take one instance-a few decades ago the so-called "rationalist" view of ghosts was simply that supernatural phenomena did not exist, but now a telepathic explanation is offered, more or less tentatively, by an ever-increasing body of intelligent opinion. There are those who, while admitting the genuineness of psychic phenomena are yet satisfied that pure psychology provides a field sufficiently wide for their researches, and who are loath to extend its boundaries to include an unknown spirit-world where research becomes a hundred-fold more difficult. To such students the theory of telepathy affords an obvious way of escape from that element of the supernatural to which they are opposed, since it is generally agreed that in seeking an explanation of thought transference it is a physical process which must be looked for. In the words of Sir William Crookes : " It is known that the action of thought is accompanied by certain molecular movements in the brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable from their extreme minuteness of acting direct on individual molecules, while their rapidity approaches that of the internal and external movements of the atoms themselves."

There is therefore nothing to render the theory of thought-vibrations impossible, or even improbable, though the difficulty of proving it has yet to be overcome. We have, however, to contend with the fact that in many cases on record the most vivid impressions have been transmitted from a distance, thus showing that the distinctness of the impression does not necessarily decrease in proportion as the distance becomes greater. In this case we must either conclude that there are other factors to be taken into account, such as the varying intensity of the impression, and the varying degrees of sensitiveness in the percipient, or we must conclude, as some authorities have done, that telepathic communication goes direct from one mind to another, irrespective of distance, just as thought can travel to the opposite side of the globe with as much ease as it can pass to the next room. Other authorities claim that the transmission of thought is on a different plane from any physical process, though, as the action of thought itself has a physical basis, it is difficult to understand why a supernatural explanation should be thought necessary in the case of telepathy. In the former connection it may be remarked that trivial circumstances can be transmitted to a percipient near at hand, while as a rule only the more intense and violent impressions are received from a distance. The question whether the telepathic principle is diffusive, and spreads equally in all directions, or whether it can be projected directly toward one individual, is still a vexed one. If it be in the form of ethereal vibrations, it would certainly seem easier to regard it as diffusive. On the other hand, practical experience has shown that in many instances, even when acting from a distance, it affects only one or two individuals. However, this might be explained naturally enough by the assumption that each transmitter requires a special receiver-i.e., a mind in sympathy with itself. But as yet no explanation is forthcoming, and the most that can be done is to suspend judgment for the present, knowing that only the possibility, or, at most, the likelihood, of such a mode of communication has been proved, and that of its machinery nothing can be said beyond the vaguest surmise.

The theory of thought transference is no new one. Like gravitation, it is a daughter of the hoary science of astrology, but while gravitation is a full-grown fact, universally accepted of science, telepathy, in its scientific aspect, is as yet an infant, and a weakling at that. However, it is not difficult to understand how both should spring from astrology, nor to trace the connection between them. The wise men of ancient days supposed the stars to radiate an invisible influence which held them together in their course, and which affected men and events on our planet, receiving in their turns some subtle emanation from the earth and its inhabitants. From this idea it was but a step to assume that a radiant influence, whether magnetic or otherwise, passed from one human being to another. The doctrine of astral influence was shared by Paracelsus and his alchemistic successors until the epoch of Sir Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the law of gravitation brought the age of astrology to a close. To the conception of magnetic influence colour was lent by the practices of Mesmer, and his followers, who ascribed to the "magnetic fluid " the phenomena of hypnosis. The analogy between the mysterious and inexplicable force binding worlds together and the subtle influence joining mind with mind is sufficiently obvious, but the difficulty is that while gravitation may be readily demonstrated, and never fails to give certain definite results, experiments in telepathy reveal the phenomena only in the most spasmodic fashion and cannot be depended upon to succeed even under the most favourable conditions. Nevertheless such systematized experiments as have been conducted from time to time have more than justified the interest which has been displayed in telepathy. Science, which had so long held herself aloof from hypnosis, was not desirous of repeating her error in a new connection. In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research (q.v.) came into being. numbering among its members some of the most distinguished men in the country. It had for its object the elucidation of the so-called supernatural" phenomena which were exciting so much popular interest and curiosity; and foremost among these was the phenomenon of thought transference, or, as it has since been christened, telepathy. Viewing their subject in a purely scientific light, trained in the handling of evidence, and resolved to pursue truth with open and unbiassed minds, they did much to bring the study of psychic phenomena into a purer and more dignified atmosphere. They recognized the untrustworthiness of human nature in general, and the prevalence of fraud even where no object was to be gained but the gratification of a perverted vanity, and their experiments were conducted under the most rigid conditions, with every precaution taken against conscious or unconscious deception. Among the most valuable evidence obtained from experimental thought transference was that gleaned by Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick (q.v.) from their experiments at Brighton in 1889-95. In this series the percipients-clerks and shop assistants-were hypnotized. Sometimes they were asked to visualize, on a blank card, an image or picture chosen by the agent. At other times the agent would choose one of a bundle of cards numbered from so to 90, and the percipient was required to state the number on the picked card, which was done correctly in a surprising number of cases. We find, curiously enough, that the results varied in proportion as the agent and percipient were near or far apart, and were materially affected by the intervention of a door, or even a curtain, between the two, but this was ascribed to a lack of confidence on the part of the percipient, or to such physical causes as fatigue or ennui, rather than to the limited scope of the telepathic principle. On the whole we are justified in thinking that chance alone would not account for the number of correct replies given by the hypnotised subject.

Towards the end of the century a criticism was levelled at these experiments by Messrs. Hansen and Lehmann, of Copenhagen, whose belief it was that the phenomenon known as " subconscious whispering," together with hyperaesthesia on the part of the percipient, would suffice to produce the results obtained by the Sidgwicks. This suggested explanation, while it does not cover the entire ground has some right to our consideration. If hypnotism reveals so marvellous a refinement of the perceptions, may not some elements of hyperaesthesia linger in the subconsciousness of the normal individual? If dreams contain in the experience of almost everyone, such curious examples of deduction, may not the mental under-current follow in waking moments a process of reasoning of which the higher consciousness knows nothing ? It may, and it does. That " other self," which is never quite so much in the background as we imagine, sees and hears a thousand things of which we are unconscious, and which come to the surface in dreams, it may be long afterwards; and there is no reason to suppose that it might not see and hear indications too slight to be perceived in a grosser sphere of consciousness, and thus account for some cases of "thought transference." On the other hand, we have evidences of telepathy acting at a distance where sub-conscious whispering and hyperaesthesia are obviously out of the question. Though hyperaesthesia may be advanced as a plausible explanation in some - or, indeed, in many-instances of telepathy, it cannot be accepted as a complete explanation unless it covers all cases, and that it certainly does not. So we must look elsewhere for the explanation, though it is not without reluctance that we quit a theory so admirably adapted to known conditions that it scarcely requires a stretching of established physiological laws to make telepathy fit as naturally as wireless telegraphy into the scheme of things.

As has been earlier mentioned, practically every branch of psychic phenomena would be vitally affected by the scientific proof of telepathy. Coincident dreams might, in the majority of cases, be easily explained away. The visions of the crystal-gazer, the trance-utterances of the medium, could be accounted for in the same manner, together with the occasional apparitions visiting the normal individual. Apparitions of the dead, however, do not so readily submit themselves to a telepathic explanation. If they are genuine apparitions, and not meaningless hallucinations, we must either admit that the impulse directing the impression comes from the surviving spirit of the deceased agent, or that it was transmitted while he was yet alive. In the latter case we are confronted with a difficulty-how to account for the time which may elapse between the death of the agent and the appearance of the vision. To bridge the gap thus formed Mr. Podmore (q.v.), in his work on Telepathic Hallucinations, has produced his theory of latent impressions, which successfully overcomes the difficulty. According to Mr. Podmore, impressions transmitted from one mind to another may remain latent for a considerable time awaiting a favourable opportunity for development. Thus the apparition of one who been dead for some time may result from an impression transmitted during his lifetime, which the percipient has retained, until a chance combination of ideas brings it into the upper stratum of consciousness in the form of a hallucination. Obviously the theory of latent impressions may bear on other phenomena than that of apparitions, and serve to fill in gaps which might otherwise remain blank.

It is interesting to compare the tone of criticisms pronounced on telepathy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century with that which characterises later utterances on the subject. Science is no longer ashamed to pursue her researches in psychic phenomena thought transference no longer appears to intellectual people as a doubtful by-path of psychology, and the change argues that at least a fair attempt will be made to reach the truth of the matter.

Literature. - Frank Podmore, Telepathic Hallucinations; The Naturalisation of the Supernatural; Apparitions and Thought Transference; F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality; A. Lang, Making of Religion; E. Parish, Hallucinations and Illusions; E. Gurney, Phantasms of the Living ; Miss Goodrich Freer, Essays in Psychical Research; Proceedings and Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. M. J.

Tellurism : A name applied by Kieser to Animal Magnetism (q.v.)

Temeraire, Charles A. : Duke of Burgundy. He disappeared after the battle of Morat; and it was said by his chroniclers that he was carried off by the devil, like Roderick. Some maintained, however, that he had withdrawn to a remote spot and become a hermit.

Templars : The Knights Templars of the Temple of Solomon were a military order, founded by a Burgundian, Hugues de Payns, and Godeffroi de St. Omer, a French Knight, in 1119, for the purpose of protecting pilgrims journeying into the Holy Land. They were soon joined by other knights, and a religious chivalry speedily gathered around this nucleus. Baldwin I., King of Jerusalem, gave them as headquarters a portion of his palace, contiguous to a mosque which tradition asserted was part of the Temple of Solomon, and from this building they took their designation. One of the purposes of the Society was to convert and render useful knights of evil life, and so many of these entered the order, as to bring it under the suspicion of the Church, but there is every reason to believe that its founders were instigated by motives of the deepest piety, and that they lived in a condition akin to poverty, notwithstanding the numerous gifts that were showered upon them, is the best proof of this. They had properly constituted officials, a Grand Master, knights, chaplains, sergeants, craftsmen, sensechals, marechals, and commanders. The order had its own clergy exempt from the jurisdiction of diocesan rule, and its chapters were held as a rule in secret. The dress of the brotherhood was a white mantle with a red cross for unmarried knights, and a black or brown mantle with a red cross for the others. The discipline was of the very strictest description and the food and clothing stipulated were rough and not abundant. By the middle of the twelfth century, the new order had got a footing in nearly all the Latin kingdoms of Christendom. It’s power grew apace, and it’s organisation became widespread. It formed, as it were, a nucleus of the Christian effort against the paganism of the east, and it’s history may be said to he that of the crusades. Moreover it became a great trading corporation, the greatest commercial agency between the east and west, and as such amassed immense wealth. On the fall of the Latin kingdom in Palestine, the Temples had perforce to withdraw from that country, and although they continued to harass the Saracen power they made but little headway against it, and in reality appear to have undertaken commercial pursuits in preference to those of a more warlike character. When the Temple was at the apogee of its power, its success aroused the envy and avarice of Philip IV. of France, who commenced a series of attacks upon it. The election of Pope Clement V., who was devoted to his interests, and a denunciation of the order for heresy and immorality gave Philip his chance. For several generations before this time, strange stories had been circulating concerning the secret rites of the Templars which were assisted by the very strict privacy of these meetings, which were usually held at day-break with closely-guarded doors. It was alleged that the most horrible blasphemies and indecencies took place at these meetings, that the cross was trampled under foot and spat upon, and that an idol named Baphomet (q.v.) (Baphe metios, baptism of wisdom) was adored, or even the Devil in the shape of a black cat. Other tales told of the roasting of children, and the smearing of the idol with their burning fat, and other nonsense was wildly promulgated by the credulous and ignorant. A certain Esquian de Horian, pretended to betray the secret " of the Templars to Philip, and they were denounced to the Inquisition ; and Jacques do Molay, the Grand Master, who had been called from Cyprus to France, was arrested with one hundred and forty of his brethren in Paris and thrown into prison. A universal arrest of the Templars throughout France followed. The wretched knights were tortured en masse, and as was usually the case, under such compulsion, confessed to the most grotesque crimes, and the most damning confession of all, was that of the Grand Master himself, who confessed that he had been guilty of denying Christ and spitting upon the Cross, but repudiated all charges of immorality in indignant terms.

The process dragged on slowly during more than three years, in consequence of the jealousies which arose among those who were more or less interested in its prosecution. The pope wished to bring it entirely under the jurisdiction of the church, and to have it decided at Rome. The king, on the other hand, mistrusting the pope, and resolved on the destruction of the order, and that none but himself should reap advantage of it, decided that it should be judged at Paris under his own personal influence. The prosecution was directed by his ministers, Nogaret, and Enguerrand de Marigny. The Templars asserted their innocence, and demanded a fair trial; but they found few advocates who would undertake their defence, and they were subjected to hardships and tortures which forced many of them into confessions dictated to them by their persecutors. During this interval, the popes orders were carried into other countries, ordering the arrest of the Templars, and the seizure of their goods, and everywhere the same charges were brought against them, and the same means adopted to procure their condemnation, although they were not everywhere subjected to the same severity as in France. At length, in the spring of 1316, the grand process was opened in Paris, and an immense number of Templars, brought from all parts of the kingdom, under-went a public examination. A long act of accusation was read, some of the heads of which were, that the Templars, at their reception into the order, denied Christ (and sometimes they denied expressly all the saints) declaring that he was not God truly, but a false prophet, a man who had been punished for his crimes ; that they had no hope of salvation through him ; that they always, at their initiation into the order, spit upon the cross, and trod it under foot that they did this especially on Good Friday; that they worshipped a certain cat, which sometimes appeared to them in their congregation ; that they did not believe in any of the sacraments of the church ; that they took secret oaths which they were bound not to reveal; that the brother who officiated at the reception of a new brother kissed the naked body of the latter, often in a very unbecoming manner; that each different province of the order had its idol, which was a head, having sometimes three faces, and at others only one; or sometimes a human skull; these idols they worshipped in their chapters and congregations, believing that they had the power of making them rich, and of causing the trees to flourish, and the earth to become fruitful; that they girt themselves with cords, with which these idols had been superstitiously touched ; that those who betrayed the secrets of their order, or were disobedient, were thrown into prison, and often put to death; that they held their chapters secretly and by night, and placed a watch to prevent them from any danger of interruption or discovery; and that they believed the Grand Master alone had the power of absolving them from their sins. The publication of these charges, and the agitation which had been designedly got up, created such a horror throughout France, that the Templars who died during the process were treated as condemned heretics, and burial in consecrated ground was refused to their remains.

When we read over the numerous examinations of the Templars, in other countries, as well as in France, we cannot hut feel convinced that some of these charges had a degree of foundation, though perhaps the circumstances on which they were founded were misunderstood. A very great number of knights agreed to the general points of the formula of initiation, and we cannot but believe that they did deny Christ, and that they spat and trod upon the cross. The words of the denial were, Je reney Deu Je reney Jhesu, repeated thrice ; but most of those who confessed having gone through this ceremony, declared that they did it with repugnance, and that they spat beside the cross, and not on it. The reception took place in a secret room, with closed doors ; the candidate was compelled to take off part or all of his garments (very rarely the latter), and then he was kissed on various parts of the body. One of the knight’s examined, Guischard de Marzici, said he remembered the receptlon of Hugh de Marhaud, of the diocese of Lyons, whom he saw taken into a small room, which was closed up so that no one could see or hear what took place within ; but that when, after some time, he was let out, he was very pale, and looked as though he were troubled and amazed (fuit valde pallidus et quasi turbatus et stupefactus.) In conjunction, however, with these strange and revolting ceremonies, there were others that showed a reverence for the Christian church and its ordinances, a profound faith in Christ, and the consciousness that the partaker of them was entering into a holy vow.

M. Michelet, who has carefully investigated the materials relating to the trial of the Templars, has suggested at least an ingenious explanation of these anomalies. He imagines that the form of reception was borrowed from the figurative mysteries and rites of the early church. The candidate for admission into the order, according to this notion, was first presented as a sinner and renegade, in which character, after the example of St. Peter, he denied Christ. This denial was a sort of pantomime, in which the novice expressed his reprobate state by spitting on the cross. The candidate was then stripped of his profane clothing, received through the kiss of the order into a higher state of faith, and re-dressed with the garb of its holiness. Forms like these would, in the middle ages, be easily misunderstood, and their original meaning soon forgotten.

Another charge in the accusation of the Templars seems to have been to a great degree proved by the depositions of witnesses; the idol or head which they were said to have worshipped, but the real character or meaning of which we are totally unable to explain. Many Templars confessed to having seen this idol, but as they described it differently, we must suppose that it was not in all cases represented under the same form. Some said it was a frightful head, with long beard and sparkling eyes; others said it was a man’s skull; some described it as having three faces ; some said it was of wood, and others of metal; one witness described it as a painting (tabula picta) representing the image of a man, (imago hominis), and said that when it was shown to him, he was ordered to" adore Christ his creator." According to some it was a gilt figure, either of wood or metal ; while others described it as painted black and white. According to another deposition, the idol had four feet-two before and two behind ; the one belonging to the order at Paris was said to be a silver head, with two faces and a beard. The novices of the order were told always to regard this idol as their saviour. Deodatus Jaffet, a knight from the south of France, who had been received at Pedenat, deposed that the person who in his case performed the ceremonies of reception, showed him a head or idol, which appeared to have three faces, and said, " You must adore this as your saviour, and the saviour of the order of the Temple," and that he was made to worship the idol, saying, " Blessed be he who shall save my soul." Cettus Ragonis, a knight received at Rome in a chamber of the palace of the Lateran, gave a somewhat similar account. Many other witnesses spoke of having seen these heads, which, however, were, perhaps, not shown to everybody, for the greatest number of those who spoke on this subject, said that they had heard speak of the bead, but that they had never seen it themselves; and many of them declared their disbelief in its existence. A friar minor deposed in England that an English Templar had assured him that in that country the order had four principal idols, one at London in the sacristy of the Temple, another at Bristeham, a third at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire). and a fourth beyond the Humber.

Some of the knights from the south added another circumstance in their confessions relating to this head. A Tempter of Florence declared that, in the secret meetings of the chapters, one brother said to the others, showing them the idol, Adore this head. This head is your God, and your Mahomet." Another, Gauserand de Montpesant, said that the idol was made in the figure of Baffomet (in figuram Baffometi); and another Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which was painted the figure of Baphomet, and he adds, "that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, Yalla," which he describes as "a word of the Saracens " (verbum Saracenorum). This has been seized upon by some as a proof that the Tempters had secretly embraced Mahometanism. As Baffomet or Baphomet is evidently a corruption of Mahomet; but it must not be forgotten that the Christians of the West constantly used the word Mahomet in the mere signification of an idol, and that it was the desire of those who conducted the prosecution against the Tempters to show their intimate intercourse with the Saracens. Others, especially Von Hammer, gave a Greek derivation of the word, and assumed it as a proof that Gnosticism was the secret doctrine of the Temple.

The confessions with regard to the mysterious cat were much rarer and more vague. Some Italian knights confessed that they had been present at a secret chapter of twelve knights held at Brindisi, at which a grey cat suddenly appeared amongst them, and that they worshipped it. At Nismes, some Templars declared that they had been present at a chapter at Montpellier, at which the demon appeared to them in the form of a cat, and promised them worldly prosperity; and added, that they saw devils in the shape of women. Gilletus de Encreyo, a Templar of the diocese of Rheims, who disbelieved in the story of the cat, deposed that he had heard say, though he knew not by whom, that in some of their battles beyond sea, a cat had appeared to them. An English knight, who was examined at London, deposed, that in England they did not adore the cat or the idol to his knowledge, but he had beard it positively stated that they worshipped the cat and the idol in parts beyond sea. English witnesses deposed to other acts of idolatry." It was of course the demon, who presented himself in the form of the cat. A lady, named Agnes Lovecote, examined in England, stated that she had heard that, at a chapter held in Dines-lee (Dynnesley, in Hertfordshire), the devil appeared to the Templars in a monstrous form, having precious stones instead of eyes, which shone so bright that they illuminated the whole chapter ; the brethren, in succession, kissed him on the posteriors, and marked there the form of the cross. She was told that one young man, who refused to go through this ceremony, was thrown into a well, and a great stone cast upon him. Another witness, Robert de Folde, said that he had heard twenty years ago, that in the same place, the devil came to the chapter once a year, and flew away with one of the knights, whom he took as a sort of tribute. Two others deposed that certain Templars confessed to them that at a grand annual assembly in the county of York, the Templars worshipped a calf. All this is mere hearsay, but it shows the popular opinion of the conduct of the order. A Templar examined in Paris, named Jacques de Treces, who said that he had been informed that at secret chapters held at midnight, a head appeared to the assembled brethren, added, that one of them "had a private demon, by whose council he was wise and rich."

The aim of King Philippe was secured; he seized upon the whole treasure of the temple in France, and became rich. Those who ventured to speak in defence of the order were browbeaten, and received little attention the torture was employed to force confessions ; fifty-four Templars who refused to confess were carried to the wind-mill of St. Aritoine, in the suburbs of Paris, and there burnt; and many others, among whom was the Grand Master himself, were subsequently brought to the stake. After having lasted two or three years, the process ended in the condemnation and suppression of the order, and its estates were given in some countries to the knights of St. John. It was in France that the persecution was most cruel; in England, the order was suppressed, but no executions took place. Even in Italy, the severity of the judges was not everywhere the same; in Lombardy and Tuscany, the Templars were condemned, while they were acquitted at Ravenna and Bologna. They were also pronounced innocent in Castile, while in Arragon they were reduced by force, only because they had attempted to resist by force of arms; and both in Spain and in Portugal they only gave up their own order to be admitted into others. The pope was offended at the lenity shown towards them in England, Spain, and Germany. The order of the temple was finally dissolved and abolished, and its memory branded with disgrace. Some of the knights are said to have remained together, and formed secret societies. The result, in effect, was the same everywhere. Convicted of heresy, sorcery, and many other abominations, the wretched Templars were everywhere punished with death by fire, imprisonment, and their goods escheated to the various crowned heads of Europe, nearly all of whom followed the avaricious example of Philip of France. Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master, brought out on to a scaffold erected in front of Notre Dame in Paris, and asked to repeat his confession and receive sentence of perpetual imprisonment, flared into sudden anger, recanted all he had said, and protested his innocence. He was burnt, and summoned the Pope and the King with his dying breath, to meet him before the bar of Heaven. Both of these dignatories shortly afterwards died, and it remained in the public mind that the outcome of the Grand Masters summons had proved his innocence.

As has been said, there is every reason to believe that there was some foundation for the charges of heresy made against the Templars. Their intimate connection with the East, and the long establishment of the order therein had in all probability rendered their Christianity not quite so pure as that of Western Europe. Numerous treatises have been written for the purpose of proving and disproving the Temple heresy, to show that it followed the doctrines and rites of the Gnostic Ophites of Islam (Baphomet being merely a corruption of Mahomet), and it has been collated with various other eastern systems. Hans Prutz, in his Geheimlehre furthered the view of the rejection of Christianity in favour of a religion based on Gnostic dualism, and at once raised up a host of critics. But many defenders of the order followed, and it was proved in numerous instances the confessions wrung from the Templars were the result of extreme torture. In not a few cases were they acquitted, as in Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and at many German and Italian centres. It has also been shown that the answers of a number of the knights under torture were practically dictated to them. In England, out of eighty Templars examined, only four confessed to the charge of heresy, and of these two were apostates. The whole question may perhaps he summed up as follows. The Templars, through long association with the East, may have become more tolerant of paganism, more broadminded, in their outlook, than their bigoted stay-at-home countrymen. Expressions as regards the worthiness of Saracen nations, among whom the Templars had many friends, would be regarded askance in France, Spain and England, and habits acquired by residence in the East would probably add to the growing body of suspicion regarding the loyalty of the order to Christianity. It is even possible that the Templars introduced into their rites practices which savoured of Gnosticism or Mahomedanism, but that is unlikely. They were, in short, the victims of their own arrogance, their commercial success, and the superstitious ignorance of their contemporaries.

It has frequently been asserted that on the death of Jacques de Molay a conspiracy was entered into by the surviving Templars which had for its objects the destruction of papacy and the several kingdoms of Europe, and that this tradition was handed on through generations of initiates through such societies as the Illuminati and the Freemasons, who in the end brought about the French Revolution and the downfall of the French throne. Such a theory, however enticing to the pseudo-occultist, the defender of the theory that occult tradition has descended to us through a direct line of adepts, or the fictioneer, can receive no countenance here, and must be dismissed as a mere figment of enthusiasm or imagination.

Temple Church, London : Hargrave Jennings in his Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries, says The Temple Church, London, presents many mythic figures, which have a Rosicrucian expression. In the spandrels of the arches of the long church, besides the " Beauseant" which is repeated in many places, there are the armorial figures following; " Argent, on a cross gules, the Agnus Dei, or Paschal Lamb, or, " Gules the Agnus Dei, dis playing over the right shoulder the standard of the Temple; or, a banner, triple cloven, bearing a cross gules ; " Azure, a cross prolonged potent issuant out of the crescent moon argent, horns, upwards, on either side of the cross, a star or." This latter figure signifies the Virgin Mary, and displays the cross as rising like the pole, or mast of a ship (argha) out of the midst of the crescent moon or navis biprora, curved at both ends ; " azure, semme of estoiles or." The staff of the Grand Master of the Templars displayed a curved cross of four splays, or blades, red upon white. The eight-pointed red Buddhist cross was also one of the Templar ensigns. The Temple arches abound with brandished estoiles, or stars, with wavy or crooked flames. The altar at the east end of the Temple Church has a cross flourie, with lower limb prolonged, or, on a field of estoiles, wavy; to the right is the Decalogue, surmounted by the initials, A.O. (Alpha and Omega), on the left are the monograms of the Saviour, I. C., X. C.; beneath, is the Lords Prayer. The whole altar displays feminine colours and emblems, the Temple Church being dedicated to the Virgin Maria. The winged horse, or Pegasus, argent, in a field gules, is the badge of the Templars. The tombs of the Templars, disposed around the circular church in London, are of that early Norman shape called dos dane; their tops are triangular; the ridge-moulding passes through the temples and out of the mouth of a mask at the upper end, and issues out of the horned skull, apparently of some purposely trodden creature. The head at the top is shown in the "honour-point" of the cover of the tomb. There is an amount of unsuspected meaning in every curve of these Templar tombs.

Tempon-teloris - Ship of the Dead : Among the Dayaks of Borneo the Ship of the Dead, the vessel which carries the souls of the departed in search of the hereafter, is generally represented as being of the shape of a bird, the rhinoceros-hornbill. Accompanying the souls on their journey through the fire-sea are all the stores which have been laid out at the trivah or feast of the dead, and all the slaves who have been killed for that purpose. After some vicissitudes in the fiery sea, the Ship of the Dead, with Tempon-telon at the helm, reaches the golden shores of the Blessed.

Temurah : (See Gematria.)

Tephillin : In the Hebrew tongue means " attachments." They were originally prayer thongs worn by the Jews at morning prayer-one on the left arm and another on the head. They came to be regarded as talismans and were used in many traditional ceremonies. The Talmud says:

"Whoever has the tephillin bound to his head and arm is protected from sin."

Tephramancy : A mode of divination in which use is made of the ashes of the fire which had consumed the victims of a sacrifice.

Teraphim, The : Of the nature of oracles. The teraphim were taken away from Jacob by his daughter, Rachel, and this mention of them in the Bible is the earliest record we have of " magical" apparatus. Their form is not known, nor the exact use to which they were put; but from an allusion to them in Hosea III., 4, they were evidently not idols. Spencer maintains that they were the same as the " Urim" of Mosaic ritual; at any rate it seems likely that they were used as a means of divination.

Tetractas : (See Alchemy.)

Tetrad : (See God.)

Tetragram : (See Alchemy, Magic, and Magical Diagram.)

Teutons : The Teutonic or " Germanic" nations, embracing the peoples of High and Low German speech, Dutch, Danes, and Scandinavians, have always displayed and still display a marked leaning towards the study and consideration of the occult. We are, however, concerned here with their attitude towards the hidden sciences in more ancient times, and must refer the reader to the article on " Germany" and the other countries alluded to for information upon medieval and modern occultism in them.

But little can he gleaned from the writings of classical authors upon the subject, and it is not until we approach the middle ages, the contemporary manuscripts concerning the traditions of an earlier day, and the works of such writers as Snorre Sturluson and Saemund (The Eddas)

Saxo-Grammaticus, and such epics or pseudo-histories as The Nibelungenlied that we find any light thrown upon the dark places of Teutonic magical practice and belief. From the consideration of such authorities we arrive at several basic conclusions (1) That magic with the Teutons was non-hierophantic, and was not in any respect the province of the priesthood, as with the Celtic Druids ; (2) That women were its chief conservators ; (3) That it principally resided in the study and elucidation of the runic script, in the same manner as in early Egypt it was part and parcel of the ability to decipher the hieroglyphic characters. Passing from the first conclusion, which is self-evident, as we discover all sorts and conditions of people dabbling in magical practice, we find that to a great extent sorcery-for efforts seem to have been confined mostly to black magic-was principally the province of women. This is to be explained, perhaps, by the circumstance that only those who could read the runes-that is, those who could read at all-were able to undertake the study of the occult, and that therefore the unlettered warrior, too restless for the repose of study, was barred from all advance in the subject. We find women in all ranks of life addicted to the practice of sorcery, from the queen on the throne to the wise-woman or witch dwelling apart from the community. Thus the mother-in-law of Siegfried bewitches him by a draught, and scores of similar instances could be adduced. At the same time the general type of ancient Teutonic magic is not very high, it is greatly hampered by human considerations, and is much at the mercy of the human element on which it acts, and the very human desires which call it forth. Indeed in many cases it is rendered nugatory by the mere cunning of the object upon which it is wreaked. In fine it does not rise very much above the type of sorcery in vogue among barbarian peoples at the present day. It is surprising, however, with all these weaknesses, how powerful a hold it contrived to get upon the popular imagination, which was literally drenched with the belief in supernatural science.

Runes.-(German, rune ; Anglo-Saxon run; Icelandic run). The word is derived from an old Low German word raunen to cut" or to carve," and as the runes in more ancient times were invariably carved and not written, it latterly came to designate the characters them-selves. As has been said, comparatively few were able to decipher them, and the elucidation was left to the curious, the ambitious among the female sex, and the leisured few in general, those perhaps including priests and lawmen. Consequently we find the power to decipher them an object of mysterious veneration among the ignorant and a belief that the ability to elucidate them meant the possession of magical powers. The possessors of this ability would in no wise minimise it, so that the belief in their prowess would flourish. Again, it is clear that a certain amount of patience and natural ability were necessary to the acquirement of such an intricate script. The tradition that they were connected with sorcery has scarcely yet died out in some parts of Iceland. In later times the word runes came to be applied to all the alphabetical systems employed by the Teutonic peoples before the introduction of Christianity. Their origin is obscure, some authorities denying that it is Teutonic, and asserting that they are merely a transformation or adaptation of the Greek characters, and others that they have a Phoenician or even cuneiform ancestry. That they are of non-Teutonic origin is highly probable, as may be inferred from their strong resemblance to other scripts and from the circumstance that it is highly unlikely that they could have been separately evolved by the Teutonic race in the state of comparative barbarism in which it was when they first came into general use. They have been divided into three systems - English, German, and Scandinavian-but the difference between these is merely local. They were not employed in early times for literary purposes, but for inscriptions only, which are usually found on stone monuments, weapons, implements, and personal ornaments and furniture. In England runic inscriptions are found in the north only, where Scandinavian influence was strongest. The first symbols of the runic alphabet have the powers of the letters f, u, th, o, r, c, for which reason the order of the runic letters is called not an alphabet but a futhorc. The system is symbolic. Thus its first quantity or letter pictures the head and horns of an ox, and is called feoh after that animal, the second is called ur, after the word for " bull," the third thoru, a tree, the others following Os, a door; rad, a saddle,; caen, a torch, all because of some fancied resemblance to the objects, or, more properly speaking, because they were probably derived or evolved from a purely pictorial system in which the pictures of the animals or objects enumerated above stood for the letters of the alphabet. Since these were cut. some connection may be permitted between Anglo-Saxon secgan, to say, and Latin secare, to cut, especially when we find secret signatures made of old by merely cutting a chip from the bark manuscript. In spelling, for example, the old sense of "spell" was a thin chip or shaving. Tacitus mentions that in Teutonic divination a rod cut from a fruit-bearing tree was cut into slips, and the slips, having marks on them, were thrown confusedly on a white garment to be taken up with prayer to the gods and interpreted as they were taken. A special use of light cuttings for such fateful cross-readings or " Virgilian lots," may have given to "spells " their particular association with the words of the magician.

Belief in Nature Spirits.-The scope of this work is entirely without the consideration of mythology proper, that is to say that the greater deities of the many human religious systems receive no treatment save in several special circumstances. But the lesser figures of mythology, those who enter into direct contact with man and assist him, or are connected with him, in magical practice, receive special and separate notice. Thus the duergar, or dwarfs trolls, undines, nixies, and all the countless host of Teutonic folk-lore are alluded to under their separate headings, and we have here only to consider their general connection with Teutonic man in his magical aspect. His belief in them was distinctly of an animistic character. The dwarfs and trolls inhabited the recesses of the mountains, caves, and the underworld. The nixies and undines dwelt in the lakes, rivers, pools, and inlets of the sea. In general these were friendly to man, but objected to more than an occasional intercourse with him. Though not of the class of supernatural being who obey the behests of man in answer to magical summonses, these, especially the dwarfs, often acted as his instructors in art-magic, and many instances of this are to be met with in tales and romances of early Teutonic origin. The dwarfs were usually assisted by adventitious aids in their practice of magic, such as belts which endowed the wearer with strength, like that worn by King Laurin, shoes of swiftness, analogous to the seven-league boots of folk-tale, caps of invisibility, and so forth.

Witchcraft.-Witchcraft, with its accompaniment of diabolism was much more in favour among the northern Teutons than it was in Germany, and this circumstance has been attributed to their proximity to the Finns (q.v.), a race notorious for its magical propensities. In Norway, Orkney, and Shetland, we find the practice of sorcery almost exclusively in the hands of women of Finnish race, and there is little doubt that the Finns exercised upon the Teutons of Scandinavia the mythic influence of a conquered race, that is, they took full advantage of the terror inspired in their conquerors by an alien and unfamiliar religion and ritual, which partook largely of the magical. The principal machinery of Teutonic witchcraft was the raising of storms, the selling of pieces of knotted rope, each knot representing a wind, divination and prophecy, acquiring invisibility, and such magical practices as usually accompany a condition of semi-barbarism. In the North of Scotland the Teutonic and Celtic magical systems may be said to have met and fused, but not to have clashed, as their many points of resemblance outweighed their differences. As the sea was the element of the people, we find it the chief element of the witch of the northern Teutons. Thus we discover in the saga of Frithjof, the two sea-witches Heyde and Ham riding the storm and sent by Helgi to raise a tempest which would drown Frithjof, and taking the shape of a bear and a storm-eagle. In the saga of Grettir the Strong we find a witch-wife, Thurid, sending adrift a magic log which should come to Grettir’s island, and which should lead to his undoing. Animal transformation plays a considerable part in Teutonic magic and witchcraft. In early Germany the witch (hexe) seems to have been also a vampire.

Second Sight.-It was, however, in prophecy and divination that the Teutons excelled, and this was more rife among the more northern branches of the people than the southern. Prophetic utterance was usually induced by ecstasy. But it was not the professional diviner alone who was capable of supernatural vision. Anyone under stress of excitement, and particularly if near death, might become "fey," that is prophetic, and great attention was invariably paid to utterances made whilst in this condition.

Literature.-Wilken, Die Prosaische Edda, Paderhorn, 1878; Grimm, Teutonic Mythology; E. S. Bugge, Studies in Northern Mythology, 1884 ; Home of the Eddic Poems, 1899; H. A. Berger, Nordische Mythologie, 1834 ; E. H. Meyer, Germanische Mythologie, 1891 ; W. Goltha, Religion and Mythen der Germanen, 1909.

Thaumaturgy : (See Magic.)

Than Weza : Burmese wizards, literally " wire-man who works in wire."   (See Burma.)

Theobald, Morrell : (See Spiritualism.)

Theomancy : The part of the Jewish Kabala which studies the mysteries of the divine majesty and seeks the sacred names. He who possesses this science knows the future, commands nature, has full power over angels and demons, and can perform miracles. The Rabbis claimed that it was by this means that Moses performed so many marvels; that Joshua was able to stop the sun; that Elias caused fire to fall from heaven, and raised the dead ; that Daniel closed the mouths of the lions ; and that the three youths were not consumed in the furnace. However, although very expert in the divine names, the Jewish rabbis no longer perform any of the wonders done by their fathers.

Theosophical Society : was founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steele Olcott. They met in America in 1874 where Colonel Olcott was engaged in spiritualistic investigation at the house of the Eddy Brothers in Vermont. Madame Blavatsky was, of course, deeply read in every thing pertaining to the occult and similarity of tastes very-naturally drew them together. Scientific materialism was then engaging general attention and making no little progress, and since theosophy is the antithesis of materialism of any kind, it was decided that some society should be formed to combat this movement. In May, 1875, a Miracle Club was formed, but it was a failure. Later in the same year, in the month of September, a fresh attempt was however, agreed on and this was made in November with Col. Olcott as president, and Madame Blavatsky as corresponding secretary, and a membership of twenty. This attempt seemed also to be doomed to failure, many members dropping off because no phenomena were manifested and indeed only Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky remained with two of the founders of the society and a few other members. Not discouraged by this, however, they decided to amalgamate with the Indian Society, but even this met with no more success, and it was not till by a happy inspiration the society was removed to India, that it began to attract attention and make headway. From that time its success was assured and, whatever opinions may be held of the soundness of theosophical teaching, no doubt can be entertained of the extent and influence of the society, which has numerous members in lands so far apart and so different in spirit as America and India, besides every other civilised country in the world. In accordance with the spirit of theosophy, no dogma is demanded of members save acceptance of the belief in the brotherhood of man, so that Christian and Mohammedan may meet on equal terms without any necessity of varying their peculiar religious beliefs. Its activities include study of everything germane to theosophy, religion, philosophy, laws of nature whether patent to all mankind as in the domain of science, or hidden as yet from all but those with special knowledge, as in the domain of the occult. (See Theosophy.)

Theosophical Society of Agrippa : Agrippa (q.v.) established in Paris and other centres a secret theosophical society, the rites of admission to which were of a peculiar character. The fraternity also possessed signs of recognition. Agrippa visited London in 1510, and whilst there he established a branch of the order in that city. A letter of Landulph’s is extant in which he introduces to Agrippa a native of Nuremberg resident at Lyons, and whom he hopes " may be found worthy to become one of the brotherhood."

Theosophy : From the Greek theos, god, and sophia, wisdom; a philosophical-religious system which claims absolute knowledge of the existence and nature of the deity, and is not to be confounded with the later system evolved by the founders of the Theosophical Society. This knowledge, it is claimed, may be obtained by special individual revelation, or through the operation of some higher faculty. It is the transcendent character of the godhead of theosophical systems which differentiates them from the philosophical systems of the speculative or absolute type, which usually proceed deductively from the idea of God. God is conceived in theosophical systems as the transcendant source of being, from whom man in his natural state is far removed. Theosophy is practically another name for speculative mysticism. Thus the Kabalistic and Neoplatonic conceptions of the divine emanations are in reality theosophical, as are the mystical systems of Boebme and Baader.

Theosophy has also come to signify the tenets and teachings of the founders of the Theosophical Society. This Society was founded in the United States in 1875 by Madame H. P. Blavatsky (q.v.), Col. H. S. Olcott (q.v.) and others. Its objects were to establish a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, to promote the study of comparative religion and philosophy and to investigate the mystic powers of life and matter. The conception of the Universal Brotherhood was based upon the oriental idea of One Life-that ultimate oneness which underlies all diversity, whether inward or outward. The study of comparative religion was materialised into a definite system of belief, the bounds of which were dogmatically fixed. It is set forth in the Theosophical system that all the great religions of the world originated from one supreme source and that they are merely expressions of a central Wisdom Religion" vouchsafed to various races of the earth in such a manner as was best suited to time and geographical circumstances. Underlying these was a secret doctrine or esoteric teaching which it was stated, had been the possession for ages of certain Mahatmas, or adepts in mysticism and occultism. With these Madame Blavatsky claimed to be in direct communication, and she herself manifested occult phenomena, producing the ringing of astral bells, and so forth. On several occasions these efforts were unmasked as fraudulent, but that is no justification for believing that Madame Blavatsky was entirely a person of deceitful character. There can be very little doubt that she was one of those rare personalities who possess great natural psychic powers, which at times failing her, she was driven in self-protection to adopt fraudulent methods. The evidence for the existence of the Great White Brotherhood " of Mahatmas, the existence of which she asserted, is unfortunately somewhat feeble. It rests, for the most part, on the statements of Madame Blavatsky, Col. Olcott, Mr. Sinnet, Mr. Leadbeater, and others, who claimed to have seen or communicated with them. With every desire to do justice to these upholders of the Theosophical argument, it is necessary to point out that it has been amply proved that in occult, or pseudo-occult experiences. the question of self-hallucination enters very largely (See Witchcraft.), and the ecstatic condition may be answerable for subjective appearances which seem real enough to the visionary. Again the written communications of the Mahatmas give rise to some doubt. It is pointed out for instance that one of them employed the American system of spelling, and this was accounted for by the circumstance that his English had been sophisticated by reading American books.

The revelations of Madame Blavatsky were in reality no more than a melange of Buddhistic, Brahministic and Kabalistic matter; but the Theosophical Society has numbered within its members several persons of very high ability, whose statement and exegesis of their faith has placed it upon a much higher level and more definite foundation. If the system is intensely dogmatic, it is also constructed in a manner akin to genius, and evolved on most highly intricate lines. This system was to a great extent pieced together after the death of the original founder of the society, on which event a schism occurred in the Brotherhood through the claims to leadership of William Q. Judge, of New York, who died in 1896, and who was followed by Mrs. Katherine Tingley, the founder of the great theosophical community at Point Loma, California. Col. Olcott became the leader of the remaining part of the original Theosophical Society in America and India, being assisted in his work by Mrs. Annie Besant, but a more or less independent organisation was founded in England.

A brief outline of the tenets of Theosophy may be attempted. It posits absolute belief in its views instead of blind faith. It professes to be the religion which holds the germs of all others. It has also its aspect as a science-a science of life and of the soul. The facts which it was to lay before humanity are as follow :-" There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of speech. The soul of man is immortal and its future is the future of the thing, whose growth and splendour has no limit. The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard, or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception. Each man is his own absolute law-giver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment."

Although Theosophy posits the existence of an Absolute, it does not pretend to knowledge of its attributes. In the Absolute are innumerable universes, and in each universe countless solar systems. Each solar system is the expression of a being called the Logos, the Word of God, or Solar Deity, who permeates it and exists above it and outside it. Below this Solar Deity are his seven ministers, called Planetary Spirits, whose relation to him is like that of the nerve centres to the brain, so that all his voluntary acts come through him to them. (See Kabala.) Under them are vast hosts or orders of spiritual beings called devas, or angels, who assist in many ways. This world is ruled by a great official who represents the Solar Deity, which is in absolute control of all the evolution that takes place upon this planet. When a new religion is to be founded, this being either comes himself or sends one of his pupils to institute it. In the earlier stages of the development of humanity, the great officials of the hierarchy are provided from more highly evolved parts of the system, but whenever men can be trained to the necessary level of power and wisdom these offices are held by them. They can only be filled by adepts, who in goodness, power and wisdom are immeasurably greater than ordinary men, and have attained the summit of human evolution. These advance until they themselves become of the nature of deities. There are many degrees and many lines of activity among these, but some of them always remain within touch of the earth and assist in the spiritual evolution of humanity. This body it is which is called the Great White Brotherhood." Its members do not dwell together, but live separately apart from the world and are in constant communication with one another and with their head. Their knowledge of higher forces is so great that they have no necessity for meeting in the physical world, but each dwells in his own country, and their power remains unsuspected among those who live near them. These adepts are willing to take as apprentices those who have resolved to devote themselves utterly to the service of mankind, and anyone who will may attract their attention by showing himself worthy of their notice. Such an apprentice was Madame Blavatsky. One of these masters has said In order to succeed the pupil must leave his own world and come into ours.

The formation of a solar system and the cosmogonic operation of the theosophical conception has been treated in several separate articles ; as have the various planes on which the personality of a man dwells in its long journey from earth to the final goal of Nirvana. The theosophical conception of the constitution of man is that he is in essence a spark of the divine fire belonging to the Monadic world (q.v.). For the purposes of human evolution this monad manifests itself in lower worlds. Entering the Spiritual World it manifests itself there as the triple spirit having its three aspects. one of which always remains in the Spiritual Sphere. The second aspect manifests itself in the Intuitional World ; and the third in the Higher Mental World ; and these two are collated with intuition and intelligence. These three aspects combined make up the ego which is man during the human stage of evolution. The way or path towards enlightenment and emancipation is known as karma. The human personality is composed of a complex organisation consisting of seven principles which are united and interdependent, yet divided into certain groups, each capable of maintaining a kind of personality. Each of these principles is composed of its own form of matter and possesses its own laws of time, space and motion. The most gross of those, the physical body, is known as rupa, which becomes more and more refined until we reach the universal self atma ; but the circumstance which determines the individual's powers, tests and advantages, or in short his character, is his karma, which is the sum of his bodily, mental and spiritual growth and is spread over many lives past and future; in short, as man soweth, so must he reap; and if in one existence he is handicapped by any defect, mental or physical, it may be regarded as the outcome of past delinquencies. This doctrine is practically common to both Buddhism and Brahminism.

After this digression, which was entered into for the purpose of affording a fuller view of the theosophic conception of human personality, we return to the constitution of man. The ego existing in the Higher Mental World cannot enter the Physical World until it has drawn around itself a veil composed of the matter of these spheres nor can it think in any but an abstract manner without them-its concrete ideas being due to them. Having assumed the astral and physical bodies, it is born as a human being; and having lived out its earth-life sojourns for a time in the Astral World, until it can succeed in throwing off the shackles of the astral body. When that is achieved man finds himself living in his mental body. The stay in this sphere is usually a long one-the strength of the mental constitution depending upon the nature of the thoughts to which he has habituated himself. But he is not yet sufficiently developed to proceed to higher planes, and once more he descends into the denser physical sphere to again go through the same round. Although he come from on high into these lower worlds, it is only through that descent that a full recognition of the higher worlds is developed in him.

In the Higher Mental World, the permanent vehicle is a causal body, which consists of matter of the first, second and third sub-divisions of that world. As the ego unfolds his latent possibilities in the course of his evolution, this matter is greatly brought into action; but it is only in the perfect man, or adept, that it is developed to its fullest extent. In the causal body none of the possibilities of the grosser bodies can manifest themselves.

The mental body is built up of matter of the four lower sub-divisions of the Mental World, and expresses man's concrete thoughts. Its size and shape are determined by those of the causal vehicle.

While on earth the personality wears the physical, mental, and astral bodies all at once. It is the astral which connects him with the Astral World during sleep or trance (See Astral Plane.) It is easy to see how the doctrine of reincarnation arose from this idea. The ego must travel from existence to existence, physical, astral, mental, until it transcend the Mental World and enter the higher spheres.

We have in this sketch attempted as far as possible to eschew the oriental verbiage of the older theosophical teachers, which it is understood is now replaced by more modern terms, but this we have retained in some of the lesser articles dealing with Theosophy.

The theosophic path to the goal of Nirvana is practically derived from Buddhistic teaching, but there are also other elements in it,-Kabalistic and Greek. The path is the great work whereby the inner nature of the individual is consciously transformed and developed. A radical alteration must be made in the aims and motives of the ordinary mortal. The path is long and difficult, and as has been said extends over many existences. Morality alone is insufficient to the full awakening of the spiritual faculty, without which progress in the path is impossible. Something incomparably higher is necessary. The physical and spiritual exercises recommended by Theosophy are those formulated in the Hindu philosophical system known as Raja Yoga. The most strenuous efforts alone can impel the individual along the path, and thus to mount by the practice of Vidyd, that higher wisdom which awakens the latent faculties and concentrates effort in the direction of union with the Absolute. The way is described as long and difficult, but as the disciple advances he becomes more convinced of his ultimate success, by the possession of transcendental faculties which greatly assist him to overcome difficulties. But these must not be sought for their own sake, as to gain knowledge of them for evil purposes is tantamount to the practice of Black Magic.

It is not pretended that in this brief sketch the whole of the theosophical doctrine has been set forth, and the reader who desires further information regarding it is recommended to the many and excellent handbooks on the subject which now abound.

Theot : (See France.)

Theurgia Goetia : (See Key of Solomon the King.)

Thian-ti-hwii - or Heaven and Earth League : an ancient esoteric society in China, said to have still been in existence in 1674. The candidate before reception had to answer 333 questions. It professed to continue a system of brotherhood derived from ancient customs.

Thomas the Rhymer : Scottish Soothsayer (circa, 1220.) It is impossible to name the exact date which witnessed the advent of the Scottish soothsayer, Thomas the Rhymer, who is well known on account of his figuring in a fine old ballad, duly included in Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. But Thomas is commonly supposed to have lived at the beginning of the thirteenth century, that period being assigned because the name, "Thomas Rimor de Ercildun," is appended as witness to a deed, whereby one " Petrus de Haga de Bemersyde" agrees to pay half a stone of wax annually to the Abbot of Melrose, and this " Petrus" has been identified with a person of that name known to have been living about 1220. Ercildun is simply the old way of spelling Earlston, a village in the extreme west of Berwickshire, hard by the line demarking that county from Roxburgh; and it would seem that Thomas held estates in this region, for he is mentioned as a landed-proprietor by several early writers, most of whom add that he did not hold his lands from the Crown, but from the Earls of Dunbar. Be that as it may, Thomas probably spent the greater part of his life in and around Earlston, and a ruined tower there, singularly rich in ivy, is still pointed out as having been his home, and bears his name; while in a wall of the village church there is a lichened stone with the inscription:-

"Auld Rhymour's Race

Lies in this Place."

and, according to local tradition, this stone was removed to its present resting place from one in a much older church, long since demolished. Nor are these things the only relics of the soothsayer, a lovely valley some miles to the west of Earlston being still known as "Rhymer's Glen" and it is interesting to recall that Turner painted a watercolour of this place, and no less interesting to remember that Sir Walter Scott, when buying the lands which eventually constituted his estate of Abbotsford, sought eagerly and at last successfully to acquire the glen in question. Naturally he loved it on account of its associations with the shadowy past, and Lockhart tells that many of the novelist's happiest times were spent in this romantic place ; while he relates how Maria Edgworth visited it in 1823, and that thenceforth Sir Walter used always to speak of a certain boulder in the glen as the " Edgworth stone," the lady writer whom he admired so keenly having rested here for a space. It seems probable, however, that the glen was so named by Scott himself.

It is thought that Thomas died about 1297, and it is clear that he had achieved a wide fame as a prophet, many references to his skill in this relation being found in writers who lived comparatively soon after him. A Harleian manuscript in the British Museum, known to have been written before 1320, discloses the significant phrase, "La Comtesse de Donbar demanda a Thomas de Essedoune quant la guere descoce prendreit fyn:" but the lady in question was not a contemporary of the prophet. In Barbour's Bruce, composed early in the fourteenth century, we find the poet saying:-

"Sikerly

I hop Thomas prophecy

Off Hersildoune sail weryfied be."

Andro of Winton, in the Originale Cronykil of Scotland, also makes mention of Thomas as a redoubtable prophet; while Walter Bower, the continuator of Fordun's Scoticronicon, recounts how once Rhymer was asked by the Earl of Dunbar what another day would bring forth, whereupon he foretold the death of the king, Alexander III., and the very next morning news of his majesty's decease was noised abroad. Blind Harry's Wallace', written midway through the fifteenth century, likewise contains an allusion to Thomas's prophesying capacities; while coming to later times, Sir Thomas Gray, Constable of Norham, in his Norman-French Scalacronica, compiled during his captivity at Edinburgh Castle in 1555, speaks of the predictions of Merlin, which like those of Banaster ou de Thomas de Ercildoune. . . . furount ditz en figure." A number of predictions attributed to Thomas the Rhymer are still current, for instance that weird verse which Sir Walter Scott made the motto of The Bride' of Lammermuir; and also a saying concerning a Border family with which, as we have seen, the soothsayer was at one time associated:-

"Betide, betide, whate'er betide,

There'll aye be Haigs at Bemersyde."

It will be observed that both the foregoing are couched in metre, yet there is really no sure proof that the soothsayer was a poet. It is usually supposed that he acquired the sobriquet of Rhymer because he was a popular minstrel in his day, but the fact remains that Rymour was long a comparatively common surname in Berwickshire, and, while it may have originated with Thomas, the assumption has but slight foundation. Again, the prophet of Earlston has been credited with a poem on the story of Sir Tristram, belonging to the Arthurian cycle of romance, and the Advocate's Library contains a manuscript copy of this, probably written so early as 1300. However, while Sir Walter Scott and other authorities believed in this ascription, it is quite likely that the poem is but a paraphrase from some French troubadour. For generations, however, the Scottish peasantry continued to be influenced by the sayings attributed to True Thomas," as they named him, as is witnessed by the publication during comparatively modern times of books containing the prophecies which he is said to have uttered.

Thoth : (See Hermes Trismegistus.)

Thought-Reading : A term somewhat loosely applied to various forms of apparent thought-transference, even where the method employed is muscle-reading or actual fraud. It must not be confused with telepathy, for, though both terms are sometimes used synonymously, the latter implies the direct action of one mind on another, independent of the ordinary sense-channels, while no such restrictions are contained in the term " thought-reading." In early times, when outbursts of ecstatic frenzy were ascribed to demoniac possession, we find the ecstatics credited with the power to read thoughts; witches were supposed to be endowed with the same faculty ; Paracelsus and the early magnetists recognised its existence. The advent of spiritualism gave to thought-reading a new impetus. It was now the spirits who read the thoughts of the sitters and replied to them with raps and table-turnings. Until quite recently, however, thought-reading was attributed either to occultism or fraud. Not only was the " ethereal vibration" theory unthought of, but the phenomena of hyperaesthesia and subconscious whispering" were very imperfectly understood in their bearing on thought-reading. Yet it is probable that these last offered a satisfactory explanation in many cases, especially when the subject was entranced. Professional thought-readers who performed on public platforms indulged largely in fraud. (See Telepathy.)

Thought Transference : (See Telepathy.)

Thought Vibrations, Theory of : (See Telepathy.)

Thrasyllus : (See Astrology.)

Tibet : In this country, the stronghold of Buddhism, all superstition circles around the national religion, which at the same time has absorbed into itself the aboriginal beliefs and demonology. Nowhere perhaps has such a vast amount of pure superstition crystallised around the kernel of Buddhism,-the pure doctrines of which were found by the Hindu conquerors of the Tibetans to be totally unsuited to the Hunnish aborigines of the country, who before the advent of Buddhism were in the aministic stage of religion. This was allowed to revive and rites and ceremonies, charms and incantations, of the very nature which Buddha had so strongly condemned, clustered quickly around his philosophy in Tibet. From this sprang the tantra system, which is almost a purely magical one. It was founded by Asanga. a monk of Peshawar, who composed its gospel, the Yogachchara Bhumi Sastra in the sixth century A.D. Basing his pantheon upon the debased system of Buddhism then prevalent, Asanga reconciled it to native requirements by placing a number of Saivite devil-gods and goddesses in the lower Buddhistic heavens. These he made subservient to the Buddha. His religion was speedily adopted by the barbarian tribes of Tibet, who sacrificed readily to the deities of this new religion. Very naturally they exaggerated the magical side of it, their main object being to obtain supernatural power by means of spoken spells and words of power. A very considerable literature sprang up in connection with the new faith, which has been scathingly commented upon by disciples of the purer Buddhism as being nothing more or less than mere barbarian sorcery. Of course the monkish class of lamas found it impossible altogether to ignore the tantra system, but Tsongkapa in the middle of the fourteenth century unhesitatingly condemned the whole system. The lamas had and have an esoteric form of Buddhism, which has but little in common with the tantra system of the people, but we find them at festivals and so on unbending so far as to represent the various devils and fiends of this faith. As literature, the tantras may be considered as a later development of the puranas, but they are without any poetic value. They are regarded as gospels by the Saktas, or worshippers of Kali, Durga or Purvati the wife of Siva, or some other creative agency. They abound in magical performances and mystic rites-a great many of which are of a quite unspeakable character. They usually take the form of a dialogue between Siva and his wife. There were originally sixty-four tantras, but as yet no satisfactory scholarly examination has been made of them.

Til : A Polynesian Vampire. (See Vampire.)

Timaeus of Locris : The earliest known writer on the doctrines of magic. The Timoean theory of God, the Universe, and the World-soul is thus set forth by Busching: " God shaped the eternal unformed matter by imparting to it His being. The inseparable united itself with the separable; the unvarying with the variable; and, moreover, in the harmonic conditions of the Pythagorean system. To comprehend all things better, infinite space was imagined as divided into three portions, which are,-the centre, the circumference, and the intermediate space. The centre is most distant from the highest God, who inhabits the circumference ; the space between the two contains the celestial spheres. When God descended to impart His being, the emanations from Him penetrated the whole of heaven, and filled the same with imperishable bodies. Its power decreased with the distance from the source, and lost itself gradually in our world in minute portions, over which matter was still dominant. From this proceeds the continuous change of being and decay below the moon, where the power of matter predominates ; from this, also, arise the circular movements of the heaven and the earth, the various rapidities of the stars, and the peculiar motion of the planets. By the union of God with matter, a third being was created, namely, the world-soul, which vitalizes and regulates all things, and occupies the space between the centre and the circumference."

Tinkers Talk : (See Shelta Than.)

Tiromancy : Divination by means of cheese. It is practised in divers ways the details of which are not known.

Toltecs : (See Mexico and Central America.)

Tomga : Eskimo familiar spirits. (See Eskimos.)

Tongues, Speaking and Writing In : The speaking and writing in foreign tongues, or in unintelligible outpourings mistaken for such, is a very old form of psychic phenomenon. It was a frequent accompaniment of the epidemic ecstasy which was so common in medieval Europe. Thus the Nuns of Loudon (q.v.) are declared to have understood and replied to questions put to them in Latin, Greek, Spanish, Turkish, and other even less-known languages. The Tremblers of the Cevennes (q.v.) spoke in excellent French, whereas French was to them a foreign language. And practically every epidemic of the kind was characterised by the speaking in tongues, which seemed to be infectious, and spread rapidly through whole communities. In these early cases the phenomenon was ascribed to the power of supernatural agencies, whether demons or angels, who temporarily controlled the organism of the "possessed." But analogous instances are to be found in plenty in the annals of modern spiritualism, where they are of course regarded as manifestations of the spirits of the deceased through the material organism of the medium. Comparatively early in the movement there are evidences of speaking and writing in Latin, Greek, French, Swiss, Spanish, and Red Indian languages. Judge Edmonds, the well-known American Spiritualist, testified to these faculties in his daughter and niece, who spoke Greek, Spanish, Polish, and Italian at various times, as well as Red Indian and other languages. Some of these cases are well attested. Two professional mediums (J. V. Mansfield and A. D. Ruggles) are known to have written automatically in many languages, including Chinese and Gaelic, but whether or not they had any previous acquaintance with these languages remains at least a matter of doubt. In still more modern times speaking in tongues has been practised, notably by Helene Smith, who invented the " Martian language." On the whole, we may take it that the so-called foreign tongues were generally no more than a meaningless jumble of articulate sounds, of which the spirits themselves sometimes purported to offer a translation. Where there is good evidence to show that the writings were actually executed in a foreign language, as in the case of the professional mediums mentioned above, there is generally some reason to suppose a former acquaintance with the language, which the exaltation of memory incidental to the trance state might revive. When unknown tongues were written they were seldom found to correspond with any real language.

Toolemak : Eskimo familiar spirits. (See Eskimos.)

Totemism : (See Fetishism.)

Tower of London : The jewel-room of the Tower of London is reported to be haunted, and, in 1860, there was published in Notes and Queries by the late Edmund Lenthal Swifte, Keeper of the Crown Jewels the account of a spectral illusion witnessed by himself in the Tower. He says that in October, 1817, he was at supper with his wife, her sister, and his little boy, in the sitting-room of the jewel-house. To quote his own words: "I had offered a glass of wine and water to my wife, when, on putting it to her lips, she exclaimed, ' Good God what is that ' I looked up and saw a cylindrical figure like a glass tube, seemingly about the thickness of my arm, and hovering between the ceiling and the table ; its contents appeared to be a dense fluid, white and pale azure. This lasted about two minutes, when it began to move before my sister-in-law; then, following the oblong side of the table, before my son and myself, passing behind my wife, it paused for a moment over her right shoulder. Instantly crouching down, and with both hands covering her shoulder, she shrieked out, ‘O Christ! it has seized me! ' " " It was ascertained," adds Mr. Swifte, " that no optical action from the outside could have produced any manifestation within, and hence the mystery has remained unsolved." Speaking of the Tower, we learn from the same source how " one of the night sentries at the jewel-house was alarmed by a figure like a huge bear issuing from underneath the jewel-room door. Pie thrust at it with his bayonet which stuck in the door. He dropped in a fit and was carried senseless to the guard-room. . . . In another day or two the brave and steady soldier died."

Tractatulus Alchimae : (See Avicenna.)

Trance : An abnormal state, either spontaneous or induced, bearing some analogy to the ordinary sleep-state, but differing from it in certain marked particulars. The term is loosely applied to many varied pathologic conditions-e.g., hypnosis, ecstasy, catalepsy, somnambulism, certain forms of hysteria, and the mediumistic trance. Sometimes, as in catalepsy, there is a partial suspension of the vital functions ; generally, there is insensibility to pain and to any stimulus applied to the sense-organs while the distinguishing feature of the trance is that the subject retains consciousness and gives evidence of intelligence, either his own normal intelligence or, as in cases of possession and impersonation, some foreign intelligence. In hypnosis the subject, though indifferent to sensory stimuli applied to his own person, has been known to exhibit a curious sensitiveness to such stimuli applied to the person of the hypnotist. (See Community' of Sensation.) In Ecstasy, which is frequently allied with hallucination, the subject remains in rapt contemplation of some transcendental vision, deaf and blind to the outside world. It was formerly considered to indicate that the soul of the ecstatic was viewing some great event distant in time or place or some person or scene from the celestial sphere. Now-a-days such a state is believed to be brought about by intense and sustained emotional concentration on some particular mental image, by means of which hallucination may be induced.

The mediumistic trance is recognised as having an affinity with hypnosis, for the hypnotic trance, frequently induced, may gradually become spontaneous, when it exhibits strong resemblances to the trance of the medium. This latter is, among spiritualists, The Trance " par excellence, and they object to the term being applied in any case where there is no sign of spirit possession." The entranced medium-who seems able to produce this state at will-frequently displays an exaltation of memory (hypermesia), of the special senses (hyperaesthesia), and even of the intellectual faculties. Automatic writing and utterances are generally produced in the trance state, and often display knowledge of which the medium normally knows nothing, or which, according to some authorities. gives evidence of telepathy. Such are the trance utterances of Mrs. Piper, whose automatic phenomena have in recent years provided a wide field for research for many men of science both in Britain and on the Continent. Naturally these phenomena. and those of all trance mediums, are referred by spiritualists to the agency of disembodied intelligences-the spirits of the dead-acting through the medium's physical organism, a notion which is akin to the old idea of demoniac possession, to which spontaneous trance was referred. Moreover, the trance messages themselves purported to come from the spirits of deceased persons and there are many who see no reason to disbelieve the emphatic assertion of the intelligence," especially when that assertion is supplemented by an exact representation of the voice, appearance, and known opinions of the deceased friend or relative whose spirit it claims to be. Such trance impersonations supply a large part of the evidence on which the structure of spiritualism rests. There is, however, nothing to show that the information concerning the deceased, thus reproduced, may not have been obtained by normal means, or, at the most, telepathically from the minds of the sitters.

Trance Personalities : Trance messages purporting to come from the medium's spirit control do not as a rule reveal a very definite personality. The control reflects the thoughts and opinions of the medium and the sitters, possesses little knowledge that they do not possess, and is in general a somewhat colourless creature. Yet not infrequently a trance medium is controlled by a spirit of distinct, not to say distinguished, personality, whose education and culture are on a much higher plane than the medium's own, and whose ideas and opinions are quite independent. Such spirits are generally given distinguishing names. They often control the medium alternately with other controls. On the other hand, the medium has generally a monopoly of one or more of these spirits, though sometimes one control may be shared by a number of mediums. Among those who may justly be regarded as the common property of the mediumistic fraternity are the spirits of certain great men-Virgil, Socrates, Shakespeare, Milton, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Swedenborg, and so on. The messages delivered through their control seldom resemble anything they wrote during their lives. It would indeed be ludicrous to hold these great men responsible for the feeble outpourings delivered in their name. But these spirits come and go it is perhaps hardly accurate to call them trance personalities at all. Among the best known of the latter class are the spirits who purported to control the late Mr. Stainton Moses-Imperator, Rector, Mentor, Prudens, and others. What the real names of these controls may be is not known, for Mr. Moses only revealed the secret to a few of his most intimate friends. Imperator and Rector were among the controls of Mrs. Piper in still more recent years, and indeed much of her automatic discourse did not come directly from the communicating spirits, but was dictated by them to Rector. It is suggested, however, by Sir Oliver Lodge and other authorities, that the controls of Mrs. Piper are not identical with those of Stainton Moses, by whom were written through his hand the well-known Spirit Teachings, but are merely masqueraders. But Mrs. Piper has several interesting trance personalities of her own, without borrowing from anybody. One of her earliest controls was Sebastian Bach, but ere long he gave place to a spirit calling himself Dr. Phinuit," who held sway for a considerable time, but gave place in his turn to George Pelham-" G.P." Pelham was a young author and journalist who died suddenly in 1892. Soon after his death he purported to control Mrs. Piper, and gave many striking proofs of his identity. He constantly referred, with intimate knowledge, to the affairs of Pelham, recognised his friends, and gave to each his due meed of welcome. Not once, it is said, did he fail to recognise an acquaintance, or give a greeting to one whom he did not know. Many of Pelham's old friends did not hesitate to see in him that which he claimed to he. Only on one occasion, when asked for the names of two persons who had been associated with him in a certain enterprise, G.P." refused, saying that as there was present one who knew the names, his mentioning them would be referred to telepathy Later, however, he gave the names-incorrectly. When "G.P." ceased to take the principle part in the control of Mrs. Piper, his place was taken by Rector and Imperator, as mentioned above. Another well-known medium, Mrs. Thompson, had as her chief control' Nelly," a daughter of hers who had died in infancy; also a Mrs. Cartwright, and others. These controls of Mrs. Thomson are said not to have shown any very individual characteristics, but to resemble Mrs. Thomson herself very strongly both in voice and manner of speech, though Mrs. Verrall has stated that the impersonations gave an impression of separate identity to the sitter. Mrs. Thomson's early trance utterances were controlled by another band of spirits, with even less individuality than those mentioned. Frequently the mediums and investigators themselves, on reaching the discarnate plane, become controls in their turn. The late Mr. Myers, Mr. Gurney, Dr. Hodgson, and Professor Sidgwick purported to speak and write through many mediums, notably through Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. Many of the statements made by these controls were correct, and some matters revealed which were apparently outside the scope of the medium's normal knowledge, but at the same time several fatal discrepancies were found to exist between the controls and those they were supposed to represent. Thus the script produced by Mrs. Holland contained grave warnings, purporting to come from Myers, against Eusapia Palladino and her physical phenomena, whereas Myers was known to hold in his lifetime opinions favourable to the physical manifestations. On the whole these trance personalities show themselves decidedly coloured by the personality of the medium. In cases where the latter was acquainted with the control the trance personality is proportionately strong, whereas when there was no personal acquaintance it is often of a neutral tint, and sometimes bad guesses are made, as when Mrs. Holland represented the Gurney control as of a brusque and almost discourteous temperament. But such instances must not be taken as impeaching the medium's good faith. Even where the trance personality is patently the product of the medium's own consciousness, there is no reason to suppose that there is any intentional deception. While in some of the most definite cases the evidence for the operation of a discarnate intelligence is very good indeed, and has proved satisfactory to many prominent investigators.

Transformation : (See Spells.)

Transmutation of Metals : (See Alchemy.)

Transmutation of the Body : This is indeed the end and aim of all Alchemy-to restore man to his primordial condition of grace, strength, perfection, beauty and physical immortality. With this in view the alchemists of all the ages have laboured to discover the secret of the Elixir of Life, which mystics believed would, literally, achieve this renewal of youth, and therefore immortality. Endless receipts for this medicine have been given, and some honestly believed they had attained it; but all to no purpose, and the great secret still remains hidden from human eyes.

Tree Ghosts : Indian tree spirits. Says Mr. Crookes in his Popular Religion of Northern India. " These tree ghoss are, it is needless to say, very numerous. Hence most local shrines are constructed under trees ; and in one particular tree, the Bira, the jungle tribes of Mirzapur locate Bagheswar, the tiger godling, one of their most dreaded deities. In the Konkan, according to Mr. Campbell, the medium or Bhagat who becomes possessed is called Jhad, or 'tree,' apparently because he is a favourite dwelling-place for spirits. In the Dakkhin it is believed that the spirit of the pregnant woman of Churel lives in a tree, and the Abors and Padams of East Bengal believe that spirits in trees kidnap children. Many of these tree spirits appear in the folk-tales. Thus, Devadatta worshipped a tree which one day suddenly clave in two and a nymph appeared who introduced him inside the tree, where was a heavenly palace of jewels, in which, reclining on a couch, appeared Vidyatprabha, the maiden daughter of the king of the Yakshas; in another story the mendicant hears inside a tree the Yaksha joking with his wife. So Daphne is turned into a tree to avoid the pursuit of her lover."

Tree of Life, The, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil : Two of the trees planted by God in the Garden of Eden, which were believed by St. Ambrose to be of mystical significance. The former is understood to be the manifestation of God, and the latter of the worldly wisdom to which our human nature is too apt to incline.

Tremblers of the Cevennes : A Protestant caste of convulsonaires, who during the sixteenth century spread themselves from their centre in the Cevennes over almost the whole of Germany. They possessed many points of resemblance with cases of possession (q.v.), and are said to have been insensible to thrusts and blows with pointed sticks and iron bars, as well as to the oppression of great weights. They had visions, communicated with good and evil spirits, and are said to have performed many miraculous cures similar to the apostolic miracles. They made use of very peculiar modes of treatment called grandes secours or secours meurtriers, which are authenticated by the reports of eye-witnesses and by judicial documents. Although they were belaboured by the strongest men with heavy pieces of wood and bars of iron weighing a? least thirty pounds, they complained of no injury, but of experiencing a sensation of pleasure. They also were covered with boards, on which as many as twenty men stood without its being painful to them. They even bore as many as 100 blows with a twenty-pounds weight, alternately applied to the breast and the stomach with such force that the room trembled, and they begged that the blows might be laid on harder, as light ones only increased their sufferings. Indeed only those who laid on the heaviest and most strenuous blows were thanked by their sick. It seemed that it was only when the power of these blows had penetrated to the most vital parts that they experienced real relief Ennemoser explains this insensibility to pain by stating that in his experience "spasmodic convulsions maintain themselves against outward attempts, and even the greatest violence, with almost superhuman strength, without injury to the patient, as has often been observed in young girls and women, where anyone might have almost been induced to believe in supernatural influence. The tension of the muscles increases in power with the insensibility of the power, so that no outward force is equal to it; and when it is attempted to check the paroxysm with force, it gains in intensity, and according to some observers not less psychical than physical. I have observed the same manifestations in children, in Catholics, Protestants and Jews, without the least variation, on which account I consider it to be nothing more than an immense abnormal and inharmonic lusus naturae."

Trevisan, Bernard : This Italian alchemist's life was a curious and intensely pathetic one. Bent on discovering the philosopher's stone, he began at an early age to lavish huge sums of money on the pursuit; but again and again he was baffled, and it was only when old age was stealing upon him, and he had disbursed a veritable fortune, that his labours were crowned with some measure of success.

Bernard Trevisan, Comte de la Marche, was born in the year 1406 at Padua, a town whose inhabitants were famous for erudition throughout many centuries in the middle ages. His father was a doctor of medicine, so it is probable that Bernard received his initial training in science at home while ere he was out of his teens he began to devote himself seriously to alchemy, having been lured thereto by reading the works of the famous Eastern philosophers, Geber and Rhasis. Bernard's father was rich, and accordingly, whenever it was known that the young man was minded to dabble in gold-seeking, he found himself surrounded by charlatans offering counsel; and his very first experiments resulted in his spending upwards of three thousand crowns, the bulk 6£ which sum went into the pockets of the youth's fraudulent advisers. He was not discouraged, however; and, finding new henchmen, and at the same time augmenting his learning by a close study of the writings of Sacrobosco and Rupecissa, he proceeded to make a new series of attempts, But these also proved futile, once more the alchemist did no more than enrich his assistants, and in consequence he vowed that henceforth he would prosecute his researches single-handed.

Bernard now engaged in a long course of sedulous reading, while he also began to give much time to prayer, thinking by this means to gain his desired end; and anon he started fresh experiments, expending on these some six thousand crowns. But again his devotion and

extravagance went unrewarded, year after year went by in this fashion, and betimes Bernard realised that he was past the prime of life, yet had achieved nothing whatsoever. His bitter disappointment engendered an illness, but scarcely was he restored to health era he heard that one Henry, a German priest, had succeeded in creating the philosopher's stone; and thereupon Bernard hastened to Germany, accompanied by various other alchemists. After some difficulty they made the acquaintance of the cleric in question, who told them he would disclose all would they but furnish a certain sum of money to procure the necessary tools and materials; so they paid as desired, yet having devoted much time to watching the German at work they found themselves no nearer the goal than before.

This last piece of quackery opened Bernard's eyes, and he proclaimed his decision of eschewing hermetic philosophy altogether in the future-a decision which was warmly applauded by his relatives, for already his researches had cost a king's ransom. But it soon transpired that the alchemist was quite incapable of clinging to his resolution, and, growing more ardent than ever, he visited Spain and Great Britain, Holland and France, trying in each of these countries to enlarge his stock of learning, and to make the acquaintance of others who were searching like himself. Eventually he even penetrated to Egypt, Persia and Palestine, while subsequently he travelled in Greece, where he witnessed many alchemistic researches ; yet all proved vain, and ultimately Bernard found himself impoverished, and was forced to sell his parental estates. Being thus without so much as a home, he retired to the Island of Rhodes, intending to live there quietly for the rest of his days; but even here his old passion continued to govern him, and, chancing to make the acquaintance of a priest who knew something of science, the thwarted and ruined alchemist proposed that they should start fresh experiments together. The cleric professed himself willing to give all the help in his power, so the pair borrowed a large sum of money to admit of their purchasing the necessary paraphernalia; and it was here, then, in this secluded island, and while in a literally bankrupt condition, that Bernard made the wonderful discovery with which he is traditionally credited. Doubtless the tradition has little foundation in fact, yet at least the philosopher deserved some reward for his indomitable if foolhardy perseverance, and it is pathetic to recall that his death occurred soon after the day of his triumph.

In contradistinction to the majority of his brother-alchemists, Bernard appears to have loved actual experiments much better than writing about them. It is probable however, that he was at least partly responsible for an octavo volume published in 1643, Le' Bernard d'Alchmague, cum Bernard Treveso ; while he is commonly credited with another work also, La Philosophic Naturelle des Metaux. Herein he insists on the necessity of much meditation on the part of the scientist who would create the philosopher's stone, and this rather trite observation is followed by a voluminous alchemistic treatise, most of it sadly obscure, and demonstrating the author no great expert.

Triad : (See God.)

Triad Society : An ancient esoteric society of China. The candidate scantily clothed, is brought into a dark room by two members, who lead him to the President, before whom he kneels. He is given a living cock and a knife, and in this posture he takes a complicated oath to assist his brethren in any emergency, even at the risk of his life. He then cuts off the head of the cock, and mingles it with his own, the three assisting individuals adding some of their own blood. After being warned that death will be his portion should he divulge the secrets of the society, he is initiated into them, and is entrusted with the signs of recognition which are in triads. For example a member must lift any object with three fingers only. This society, originally altruistic, is now of a political character.

Triangle : (See Magic.)

Trident, Magical : (See Magic.)

Trine, Ralph Waldo : (See New Thought.)

Tripod : (See Necromancy.)

Trithemius : The son of a German vine-grower, named Heidenberg, received his Latinized appellation from Trittheim, a village in the electorate of Treves, where he was born in 1462. He might reasonably be included among those earnest and enthusiastic souls who have persevered in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties; for his mother, marrying a second time, had no love for the offspring of her first marriage. The young Trithemius was ill-fed, ill-clothed, and over-worked. All day he toiled in the vineyards ; but the nights he was able to devote to the acquisition of knowledge, and then he stole away from his miserable home, and perused what books he could beg or borrow, by the light of the moon. As his mind expanded he became sensible of the vast stores of learning to which his circumstances denied him access. He could not rest content with the few grains of sand he had picked up on the seashore. Extorting his small share of the patrimony bequeathed by his father, he wandered away to Treves, entered himself a student of its celebrated University, and assumed the name of Trithemius. His progress was now as rapid as might be inferred probable from the intensity of his aspirations and the keenness of his intellect. At the age of twenty lie had acquired the reputation of a scholar-a reputation which was of greater advantage in the 15th than it is in the 20th century. He was now desirous of once more seeing the mother whom he did not love the less because she had ill-used him, and in. the winter of 1482 he quitted the cloistered shade of Treves on a solitary journey to Trittheim. It was a dark day, ending in a gloomy, fast-snowing night, and the good student, on his arrival near Spannheim, found the roads impassable. He sought refuge in a neighbouring monastery. There the weather imprisoned him for several days. The imprisonment proved so much to the liking of Trithemius, that he voluntarily took the monastic vows, and retired from the world. In the course of two years he was elected abbot, and devoting all his little fortune to the repair and improvement of the monastery, he gained the love and reverence of the brotherhood, whom he inspired with his own love of learning. But after a rule of one-and-twenty years, the monks forgot all his benefits, and remembered only the severity of his discipline. They broke out in revolt, and elected another abbot. The deposed Trithemius quitted Spannheim, and wandered from place to place, until finally elected Abbot of St. James of Wurzburg. where he died in 1516.

His fame as a magician rests on very innocent foundations He devised a species of short-hand called steoganographia, which the ignorant stigmatized as a cabalistical and necromantic writing, concealing the most fearful secrets. He wrote a treatise on the subject ; another upon the supposed administration of the world by its guardian angels-a revival of the good and evil geniuses of the Ancients-which William Lilly translated into English in 1647; a third upon Geomancy, or divination by means of lines and circles on the ground; a fourth upon Sorcery; and a fifth upon Alchemy. In his work upon Sorcery he makes the earliest mention of the popular story of Dr. Faustus, and records the torments he himself occasionally suffered from the malice of a spirit named Hudekin. He is said to have gratified the Emperor Maximilian with a vision of his deceased wife, the beautiful Mary of Burgundy, and was reputed to have defrayed the expenses of his monastic establishment at Spannheim by the resources which the Philosopher's Stone put at his disposal. His writings show him to have been an amiable and credulous enthusiast but his sincere and ardent passion for knowledge may well incline us to forgive the follies which he only shared with most of the scholars and wise men of his age.

Triumphal Chariot of Antimony : (See Valentine, Basil.)

Trivah : Among the natives of Borneo the trivah, or feast of the dead, is celebrated after a death has taken place. A panel containing a representation of Tempon-teloris' ship of the dead (q.v.) is generally set up at the trivah, and sacrifices of fowls are offered to it. Until the trivah has been celebrated the soul's soul is unable to reach the Levu-liau.

True Black Magic, Book of the : A Grimoire, which is simply an adapted version of the Key of Solomon (q.v.)

Tsithsith, The : An article of apparel, believed to be endowed with talismanic properties. A sentence in the Talmud runs thus : Whoever has the tephillin bound to his head and arm, and the tsithsith thrown over his garments is protected from sin.

Tumah : According to the Kabala, physical or moral uncleanness. The latter is divided into three main divisions-idolatry, murder, and immorality. Sin, says the same authority, not only rendered imperfect man himself, but also affected the whole of nature, even to the sphere of angels, and the Divinity himself. In physical uncleanness there is a coarser and a more subtle form. The latter causes a dimness in the soul which is most keenly felt by those who are nearest to sacred things. Organic things which come into contact with the human body are more liable to the Tumah than remoter things. The human corpse is more unclean than that of the lower animals, because its more complex nature involves a more repulsive decay. Thus the corpse of a holy man is most unclean of all.

Tunisa : Burmese diviners. (See Burma.)

Turcomans : (See Siberia.)

Turner, Ann : English witch. (See England.)

Turquoise : A good amulet for preventing accidents to horsemen, and to prevent them wearying. It moves itself when any danger threatens its possessor

Typtology : The science of communicating with the spirits by means of rapping, various codes being arranged for the purpose. Thus the sitters may read the alphabet aloud, or slowly pass a pencil down a printed alphabet, the rappings indicating the correct letters which, on being joined together, form a message or an answer to some question propounded. One rap may be made to mean "yes," two " no," and so on. (See Rappings.)