Passing From Seer to Seer, the “Word” Flashes
Out Like Lightning. But Sometimes There is a Problem.
Helena P. Blavatsky
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The issue of occult succession is not
always simple and easy, as one can see
by reading the following paragraphs. The main
narrative is reproduced here from a long footnote
at pages 42, 43 and 44 in volume II of the
extraordinary book “Isis Unveiled”, by Helena
P. Blavatsky (Theosophy Company, 1982).
To that we add - after the subtitle “The Need
to Pass the Word” - an expanding commentary
which appears at p. 571 in the same volume. [1]
(C. C. A.)
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There is a wide-spread superstition (?), especially among the Slavonians and Russians, that the magician or wizard cannot die before he has passed the “word” to a successor.
So deeply is it rooted among the popular beliefs, that we do not imagine there is a person in Russia
The ancient Variago-Rouss had his Mysteries in the North as well as in the South of Russia; and there are many relics of the by-gone faith scattered in the lands watered by the sacred Dnieper, the baptismal Jordan of all Russia
How far the belief may be verified by others, we do not know, but we have seen a case which, for its tragical and mysterious dénouement [2], deserves to be given here as an illustration of the subject in hand.
An old man, of over one hundred years of age, a peasant-serf in the government of S------, having a wide reputation as a sorcerer and healer, was said to be dying for several days, and still unable to die. The report spread like lightning, and the poor old fellow was shunned by even the members of his own family, as the latter were afraid of receiving the unwelcome inheritance.
At last the public rumor in the village was that he had sent a message to a colleague less versed than himself in the art, and who, although he lived in a distant district, was nevertheless coming at the call, and would be on hand early on the following morning.
There was at that time on a visit to the proprietor of the village a young physician who, belonging to the famous school of Nihilism
Early in the morning a company of four persons, comprising the physician, the master of the place, his daughter, and the writer of the present lines, went to the hut in which was to be achieved the triumph of skepticism. The dying man was expecting his liberator every moment, and his agony at the delay became extreme. We tried to persuade the physician to humor the patient, were it for humanity’s sake. He only laughed. Getting hold with one hand of the old wizard’s pulse, he took out his watch with the other, and remarking in French that all would be over in a few moments, remained absorbed in his professional experiment. The scene was solemn and appalling. Suddenly the door opened, and a young boy entered with the intelligence, addressed to the doctor, that the koum was lying dead drunk at a neighboring village, and, according to his orders, could not be with “grandfather” till the next day.
The young doctor felt confused, and was just going to address the old man, when, as quick as lightning, the Znachar snatched his hand from his grasp and raised himself in bed.
His deep-sunken eyes flashed; his yellow-white beard and hair streaming round his livid face made him a dreadful sight. One instant more, and his long, sinewy arms were clasped round the physician’s neck, as with a supernatural force he drew the doctor’s head closer and closer to his own face, where he held him as in a vise, while whispering words inaudible to us in his ear.
The skeptic struggled to free himself, but before he had time to make one effective motion the work had evidently been done; the hands relaxed their grasp, and the old sorcerer fell on his back - a corpse!
A strange and ghostly smile had settled on the stony lips - a smile of fiendish triumph and satisfied revenge; but the doctor looked paler and more ghastly than the dead man himself. He stared round with an expression of terror difficult to describe, and without answering our inquiries rushed out wildly from the hut, in the direction of the woods.
Messengers were sent after him, but he was nowhere to be found. About sunset a report was heard in the forest. An hour later his body was brought home, with a bullet through his head, for the skeptic had blown out his brains!
What made him commit suicide? What magic spell of sorcery had the “word” of the dying wizard left on his mind? Who can tell?
The Need to Pass the Word. [3]
(….)
That there are fearful secrets in nature may well be believed when, as we have seen in the case of the Russian Znachar, the sorcerer cannot die until he has passed the word to another, and the hierophants of White Magic rarely do.
It seems as if the dread power of the “Word” could only be entrusted to one man of a certain district or body of people at a time. When the Brahmatma [4] was about to lay aside the burden of physical existence, he imparted his secret to his successor, either orally, or by a writing placed in a securely-fastened casket which went into the latter’s hands alone.
Moses “lays his hands” upon his neophyte, Joshua, in the solitudes of Nebo and passes away forever. Aaron initiates Eleazar on Mount Hor
NOTES:
[1] We have added title and subtitle to the present fragments from “Isis Unveiled”. In order to make the reading easier, we divided a few larger paragraphs into smaller ones. (C. C. A.)
[2] Dénouement: “outcome”, in French. (C. C. A.)
[3] The following fragment is taken from page 571, volume II, “Isis Unveiled”, Theosophy Co. (C. C. A.)
[4] Brahma-atma or Brahmatma was the chief of the initiates in the temple of Hinduism
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