Blackpullet

Black Pullet Summary

In site of pyramid, Soldier is injured: 2 sword cuts to head, one cut to left arm. all comrades killed, stripped of assets.

Night falls

Stone drops from the entrance to the pyramid, bearded man with lamp ("the hermit"?) appears

The soldier calls to him

Hermit removes girdle and uses it to bandage soldier's head wound

Hermit gives the soldier a sweet, perfumed potion, he feels revived

led by the hand soldier is taken into pyramid after short walk and "several sinuous turns"

Balms applied to wounds, soldier invited to lay down to sleep

after awakening, hermit informs soldier that his army have left the country and travel at this time is not safe

Hermit explains he is the master in occult sciences, magick, alchemy etc. Hermit is now referred to as "adopted father"

Invocations are made, prayers offered (p15,16)

Soldier is told he must renunciate evil

Elemental spirits explained to Soldier (p19)

p20, 21 - elemental servants are fed

delicious food is consumed

p23-29 orations of the sages

p30 soldier's initiation begins

Ritual

Preparation of the Candidate

Candidate is vulnerable and symbolic injured/debilitated

Challenge at the Door

Medicine (sweet drink) is given to candidate

Instruction to Candidate (i)

Explanation of the elementals

Instruction to Candidate (ii)

Oration of the sages Immortal, Eternal, Ineffable, and Sacred Father of all things, who is carried on the chariot rolling without cease, of the worlds which rotate always. Ruler of the Etheric Plain where Your throne of power is exalted and from whose heights Thy formidable eyes discover everything and Your beautiful and saintly ears hear everything. Harken to Your children whom You have loved from their birth through all time. Since Your lasting, great, and eternal majesty shines brightly over the world and the starry heavens, Thou art raised above them. Oh, sparkling fire! There You light and maintain Yourself in the appropriate splendour. There comes forth from Your being never-failing streams of light which nourish Your infinite spirit. This infinite spirit generates all things and makes this inexhaustible treasure of matter which cannot fail to procreate that which always surrounds it because of the forms without number with which it is filled and with which You have filled it since the beginning of time. From this spirit the very saintly kings who are standing around Your throne and who compose Your court also draw their origin. Oh, Universal Father! Oh, Unique One! Oh, Father of blissful mortals and immortals! You have particularly created the powers which are marvelously like Your eternal thought and Your adorable essence. You have established them superior to the angels who announce Your wishes to the world. Finally, You have created us sovereigns over the elements. Our continued exertion is to praise You and to adore Your desires. We burn with the desire to be possessed of You. Oh, Father! Oh, Mother, the most tender of Mothers! Oh, admirable example of tender sentiments of Mothers! Oh, Son, the flower of all Sons! Oh, mould of all our shapes! Well beloved spirit, soul, harmony, and number of all things, we adore You. When I had finished, he said to me: "My dear son, I have spoken to you of the spirits that populate the firmament, the sea, the earth, and fire, that is to say the elements. I have spoken to you of the spirits and am going to go into greater detail to extend the limits of your intelligence and to give you the means of penetrating into and understanding the sacred mysteries which will be divulged to you. "When the universe was full of life, this unique son, this God-engendered, had received a spherical body, the most perfect of all; he was subject to circular movement, the simplest of all, the most suitable to his shape. The Supreme Being surveyed his work with complaisance, and having compared it with the model which He followed in his operations, He recognised with pleasure that the principal traits of the original repeated themselves in the copy. He did not grant him eternity for these two worlds could not have the same perfections. He made time, the mobile image of immobile eternity, which measures the duration of the sensible world as eternity measures that of the intellectual world, and for that He left traces of his presence and his movements. The Supreme Being kindled the sun and cast him with the other planets into the vast solitude of the airs. It is from there that this heavenly body floods the sky with its light. The contriver of all things then addressed His commandment to the spirits to whom he had entrusted the The Black Pullet - Science of Magical Talismans. administration of the heavenly bodies. "Gods, who owe your birth to Me, listen to My sovereign commands. You do not have the right to immortality; but you participate in it by the power of My will, more powerful than the bonds which unite the parts of which you are composed. It remains for the perfection of all this to fill with inhabitants the seas, the earth, and the airs. If they should owe the day to Me immediately, escape the empire of death, they would become equal to the gods themselves. I thus lay on you the care of producing them. Agents of My power, unite to these perishable bodies the favor of immortality which you have received from My hand. Mold in particular those beings who command other animals and who are submissive to you; who are born by your orders; who increase by your good deeds, and who after their death are reunited with you and participate in your happiness." He spoke, and suddenly, pouring into the basin where he had kneeded the Soul of the World the remainder of this Soul held in reserve, he then fashioned the individual Souls, and joining to those of men a small portion of the Divine Essence, he attached to them irrevocable destinies. Finally, having appointed to the inferior gods the successive reclothement of mortal bodies to provide for and control their needs, the Supreme Being re-entered into eternal rest. The inferior gods were obliged to employ the same means in developing us and thus the maladies of the body and the even more dangerous ones of the soul. All that is good in the universe in general and in man in particular derives from the Supreme God; all that is defective comes from the vices inherent in matter. "The earth and the heavens are populated, my dear son, with Spirits to whom the Supreme Being has confided the administration of the Universe; He has distributed them everywhere nature appears to be animated but principally in those regions which stretch around and above us from the earth up to the sphere of the Moon. It is there where an immense authority is exercised, they dispensing life and death, the good and the bad, light and darkness. "Each nation, each individual finds in these invisible representatives an ardent friend to protect him, an enemy no less ardent to pursue him. They are clothed in an aerial body; their essence holds the middle between Divine Nature and nature; they surpass us in intelligence; some of them are subject to our passions, mostly in the changes which pass them on to a superior rank. Because of their innumerable multitude, spirits are divided into four classes: the first of perfect beings whom the common herd adore and who reside in the stars; the second, those of the spirits properly called and of whom I conversed with you; the third, those beings less perfect who however, render great service to humanity; the fourth, those of our souls, after they have been separated from the bodies which they inhabited. We may discern from the first three the honors which will one day become part of our nature if we cultivate exclusively wisdom and virtue. "To render you more sensible of that which I have put forward to you relative to the spirits, I will give you an account of what befell me with those who are submissive to me. Know also that they only communicate to souls after a long time of preparation in meditation and prayer. The dominion which I have obtained over my spirit is the result of my constancy in the practice of the virtues. In the beginning I The Black Pullet - Science of Magical Talismans. saw him only rarely; one day yielding to my repeated entreaties he transported me to the realm of the spirits. Listen, my son, to the story of my voyage. ‘The moment of departure having arrived, I felt my soul detatch itself from the bonds which attached it to the body, and I found myself in the middle of a new world of animated substances, good or malignant, blithe or sad, prudent or careless. We followed them for some time, and I thought I recognized some who were directing the interests of nations and those of individuals, the researches of sages and the opinions of the multitude. "Soon a woman of gigantic stature extended her black veils over the vault of the skies; and having descended slowly to earth, she gave her orders to the cortege which had accompanied her. We glided into several houses. Sleep and its ministers scattered poppies with full hands; and while silence and peace spread gently around virtuous men, remorses and frightful spectres shook the beds of the wicked with violence. "‘Dawn and the hours open the barriers of the day,’ my guide said to me. ‘It is time to rise into the air. See the tutelary spirits of Egypt soaring over the different towns and regions which the Nile irrigates. They dispel as much as possible the evils with which they are menaced; nevertheless, their countryside will be devastated because the spirits enveloped in dark clouds are advancing and thundering against us; he then announced to me the arrival of the army of which you formed a part because he had knowledge of its comming. ‘Observe now these assiduous agents, who, with a flight as rapid and as restless as the swallow, skim over the earth and cast piercing looks on all sides for greed and avidity; these are the inspectors of human affairs. Some spread their sweet influence over the mortals whom they protect; others launch the relentless Nemesis against grave transgressions. See these mediators, these expounders who rise and descend without cease; they carry your prayers and your offerings to the gods; they bring back to us happy or distressing dreams and the secrets of the future which are then revealed to you by the mouth of the oracles.’ "Oh my protector!" I cried suddenly, "here are beings which in their stature and sinister appearance inspire terror; they come to us. "‘Flee,’ he said to me, ‘they are unhappy, the good fortune of others irritates them, and they spare only those who pass their life in sufferings and in tears.’ "Escaping from their fury, we found objects no less afflicting. Discord, the detestable and eternal source of dissentions which torment men, marched proudly above their heads and whispered outrage and vengeance into their hearts. With timid steps and lowered eyes, the prayers trailed on their steps and endeavoured to recall everywhere the calm they had showed themselves. Glory was pursued by envy who tore her own sides; truth by impos re who changed its face from moment to moment; each virtue by several vices which carried snares or knives. The Black Pullet - Science of Magical Talismans. "Fortune appeared suddenly. My guide said to me, ‘You can speak with her.’ I felicitated her on the gifts which she distributed to mortals. She told me in a serious tone that she did not give but took a great interest. While uttering these words, she soaked the flowers and fruits which she held in one hand in a poisoned cup which she held in the other. "Then passed near us two powerful spirits who left long trails of light after them. The one was war and the other wisdom. "My guide told me two armies were approaching each other and were on the point of coming to blows. Wisdom would place herself near the general whose cause was just and he would be the victor because worth must triumph. "‘Let us leave these unhappy spheres,’ said my spirit. We leapt the limits of the sphere of darkness and death with the speed of lightning and of thought. We then shot above the sphere of the Moon, and we reached the regions lit by eternal day. ‘Let us stop for an instant,’ said my guide. ‘Cast your eyes over the magnificent spectacle which surrounds you; listen to the divine harmony which is produced by the regular movement of the celestial bodies; look how to each planet, each star, is attached a spirit which directs its course. These heavenly bodies are populated by sublime intelligences of a nature superior to ours. ‘With my eyes fixed on the sun, I contemplated with ravishment the spirit who with a vigorous arm pushes this scintillating globe on the course which he has decreed. I watched him cast aside with fury the souls who endeavoured to plunge into the boiling surges of this sphere to purify themselves although they were not worthy of this blessing. Touched by their misfortune, I begged my conductor to take me away from this sight and to lead me into the distance towards an enclosure where one could escape the rays of light which were too brilliant. I hoped to catch a glimpse of the Sovereign of the Universe surrounded by the assistants of His throne and of those pure beings who our philosophers call numbers, eternal ideas or spirits of the mortals. My spirit told me that the Sovereign inhabits regions inaccessable to humans, that we should offer him our homage and descend to earth. "Hardly had he spoken when we found ourselves in the same place from whence we had made our departure. He said to me, ‘I have let you become acquainted with that which no mortal has ever been permitted to glimpse. From this moment it is no longer forbidden to me to hide anything from you.’ And he unveiled to me all the mysteries in which I will let you participate. To convince you of the truth of all that I have given out to you, you will see my spirit, who will become yours since I have adopted you as my son. He will see in you another me. ’ He pronounced these two words: Koux, Ompax. In that instant I saw appear a young man of the most beautiful stature; the remainder of his person shone with all the charms, and on the summit of his head shone a flame of which my eyes could not sustain the brilliance. He said smiling at the old man: Oles, Nothos, Perius. The old man took his hand and answered: Solathas, Zanteur, Dinanteur. The spirit took his place by his side. The Black Pullet - Science of Magical Talismans. The old man noticed that the spirit’s light dazzled my eyes. "When you have been initiated into the mysteries of wisdom, you will be able to contemplate this fire without danger and even to stand the rays of the sun. Let us begin the initiation, let us stand." I executed this order which he had given as did the spirit. He placed his hand on my head and said: "Sina, Misas, Tanaim, Orsel, Misanthos." A voice which came from the cavern wherein were the coffers containing all the precious stones gave this answer: "Torzas, Elicanthus, Orbitau ." Hardly had the last word been pronounced than we found ourselves in the most profound darkness. The fire which shone on the head of the spirit had also disappeared. "Be without dread or fear," the old man said. "My father, am I not with you?" "Your answer pleases me, it proclaims confidence. You will now test the effects of it." He then said: "Thomatos, Benasser, Elianter." Everything was then lit up but by a seemingly dark light, and I saw enter several individuals who took up positions around the room. "Here are all the spirits who will be subservient to you; I will proclaim them to you." He took me by the hand and conducted me around the room. He stopped in front of every spirit and said to me, "Repeat with me: Litau, Izer, Osnas." I obeyed and each spirit bowed saying, "Nanther." There were thirty-three. When we had reached the last one, he told me to return to the place which I had occupied. Then he took a wand six feet in length having at one end the head of a serpent and at the other the tail. On the wand were plates of gold the same as the head and tail on which were engraved the characters as illustrated in Figure 1. He formed a circle by uniting each end by a golden chain which he passed through two links; he put it on the ground and placed himself in the center.

Instruction to Candidate (iii)

Initiation

"What do you wish to see at this moment, my son?" he asked me. "The plain on which you found me at the point of death from pain and want," I answered. He raised his hands toward heaven and said, "Soutram, Ubarsinens." Immediately the spirits approached me and taking me in their arms, they lifted

These characters should be written on the wand with India ink. me, and I found myself transported to the foot of the Pyramid. I saw a multitude of Arabs on horseback who were surveying it. Although I had not noticed him, the old man was near me enjoying my astonishment. "You see, my son, how all the spirits are submissive to you, how they will obey you and await your orders. Do you wish to return to the place which you left or to soar for some time in the middle of the aerial parts? Do you know that you can see all that is happening around you and that you are visible only to the Great Being who wishes to accord you wisdom and to those who accompany you?" I testified to the desire to survey the immensity. "Pronounce Saram while extending your arms towards the east, and you will be satisfied." I uttered this word and made the indicated sign. The spirits lifted me up as well as the old man. We approached the clouds, and the vast horizon opened to my enchanted eyes. The old man once again said to me: "You see I have not made vain promises, you will have the same success in all your undertakings, but let us return to the Pyramid. The spirits await us, and we will continue our workings."

Explanation of talismans