The Old and the New Magic

by Henry Ridgely Evans

MIND POWER,

THE SIMLA SEANCE,

FLY TO, OR THE PRINCESS OF KARNAC,

An astonishing illusion, exploiting the theosophic theory of projection of astral bodies through the air. An original conception so startling in effect and so nearly approaching the supernatural as to seem miraculous. Affinity with an unseen power seems plausible, and scientific minds marvel at the production.

A GENTLEMAN OF THIBET.

“I could not remember any more than that the hero [Cagliostro] had spoken of heaven, of the stars, of the Great Secret, of Memphis, of the High Priest, of transcendental chemistry, of giants and monstrous beasts, of a city ten times as large as Paris, in the middle of Africa, where he had correspondents.”—COUNT BEUGNOT: Memoirs.

I.

When Madame Blavatsky, High Priestess of Isis, died, there followed a long interregnum during which magic languished. Finally there appeared in the East a star of great magnitude—the five-pointed star of the Gnostics and the Oriental Mahatmas, heralding the coming of another mystic. Madame Blavatsky had set the fashion for Thibetan adepts, and had turned the current of modern occultism towards the Land of the Lamas, so it was quite natural that the new thaumaturgist should hail from the Holy City of Llassa. His name was Monsieur le Docteur Albert de Sarak, Comte de Das, who claimed to be “the son of a Rajah of Thibet and a French Marchioness,” and to have been born in the land of marvels.

Monsieur le Comte, in his circulars, described himself as “General Inspector of the Supreme Council of Thibet.” He carried about with him a voluminous portfolio of papers containing “the numerous diplomas which he possessed as member of several orders of knighthood and of scientific and humanitarian associations.” He also exhibited a Masonic diploma of the Thirty-third degree, which bore the endorsement of all the Supreme Councils of the Rite to which he belonged in the countries through which he had traveled. But he was not a {255} Fellow of the Theosophical Society. On the contrary, he claimed to have been persecuted by the members of that Brotherhood; to have been frequently arrested and denounced by them as a pretender to the occult, as a false magician, etc., etc.

The Count made his début in Washington, D. C, in the year 1902, where he founded one of his esoteric centers, described as follows in the organ of his cult, The Radiant Truth, of which he was editor-in-chief: