21. The Science Of The Prophetsb

The soul, scrutinizing by means of the whole nervous system the circle of the Astral Light, which influences a man and from him receives an influence; the soul of the diviner, we repeat, can comprehend by a single intuition all the loves and hatreds which such a person has evoked about him; it can read his intentions in his thoughts, foresee obstacles that he will encounter, possibly the violent death which awaits him; but it cannot divine his private, voluntary, capricious determinations of the moment following consultation, unless indeed the ruse of the diviner itself prepares the fulfilment of the prophecy. For example, you say to a woman who is on the wane and is anxious to secure a husband: You will be present this evening or tomorrow evening at such or such a performance, and you will there see a man who will be to your liking. This man will observe you, and by a curious combination of circumstances the result will be a marriage. You may count on the lady going, you may count on her seeing a man and believing that he has noticed her, you may count on her anticipating marriage. It may not come to that in the end, but she will not lay the blame on you, because she would be giving up the opportunity for another illusion: on the contrary, she will return diligently to consult you. We have said that the Astral Light is the great book of divinations; the faculty of reading therein is either natural or acquired, and there are hence two classes of seers, the instinctive and the initiated. This is why children, uneducated people, shepherds, even idiots, have more aptitude for natural divination than scholars and thinkers. The simple herd-boy David was a prophet even as Solomon, king of Kabalists and Magi. The perceptions of instinct are often as certain as those of science; those who are least clairvoyant in the Astral Light are those who reason most. Somnambulism is a state of pure instinct, and hence somnambulists require to be directed by a seer of science: sceptics and reasoners merely lead them astray. Divinatory vision operates only in the ecstatic state, to arrive at which doubt and illusion must be rendered impossible by enchaining or putting to sleep thought. The instruments of divination are hence only auto-magnetic methods and pretexts for auto-isolation from exterior light, so that we may pay attention to the interior light alone. It was for this reason that Apollonius enveloped himself completely in a woollen mantle and fixed his eyes on his navel in the dark. The magical mirror of Dupotet is kindred to the device of Apollonius. Hydromancy and vision in the thumb-nail, when it has been polished and blackened, are varieties of the magical mirror. Perfumes and evocations still thought; water and the colour black absorb the visual rays; a kind of dazzlement and vertigo ensue, followed by lucidity in subjects who have a natural aptitude or are suitably disposed in this direction. Geomancy and cartomancy are other means to the same end; combinations of symbols and numbers, which are at once fortuitous and necessary, bear sufficient resemblance to the chances of destiny for the imagination to perceive realities by the pretext of such emblems. The more the interest is excited, the greater is the desire to see; the fuller the confidence in the intuition, the more clear the vision becomes. To combine the points of geomancy on chance or to set out the cards for trifling purposes is to jest like children: the lots become oracles only when they are magnetized by intelligence and directed by faith. Of all oracles, the Tarot is the most astounding in its answers, because all possible combinations of this universal key of the Kabalah give oracles of science and of truth as their solutions.