Editor’s Note: This text forms Appendix I to Section V of the surviving “Würzburg Manuscript,” occupying pp. 225–241 of the original manuscript pagination (pp. 123–130 in the 2014 Eastern School Press edition). Blavatsky subsequently removed the Appendix from the projected Secret Doctrine and published a substantially revised and expanded version during her lifetime as “Star-Angel-Worship in the Roman Catholic Church,” in Lucifer, Vol. II, No. 11, July 15, 1888, pp. 355–365.
The published article preserves the manuscript’s principal historical sequence—from Archbishop Adalbert and Uriel through the Seven Spirits, Amadeus, Antonio Duca, the church of St. Mary of the Angels, the suppression and restoration of the angelic names and services, and de Mirville’s discussion of the planetary Spirits—but considerably enlarges the treatment throughout. It adds a new introduction defending Theosophy against charges of astrolatry, expands the historical and doctrinal documentation, incorporates material that in the Würzburg manuscript still belonged to the adjoining subsection “The Souls of the Stars—Universal Heliolatry,” and concludes with a fuller exposition of the occult conception of the planetary Spirits and an extended criticism of both Roman Catholic and Protestant positions. The Lucifer article therefore represents not merely a revision of the Appendix, but a consolidation and substantial expansion of the wider Star-Angel material that remained distributed across Section V at the Würzburg stage.
Appendix I. The Star-Angel Worship in the Roman Church, Its Reestablishment, Growth and History.
The following is compiled from several sources,—documents in the Archives of the Vatican, and other independent works. Another version of this narrative may be found in the made up history of it, by the Marquis de Mirville (in his Pneumatologie des Esprits. Vol. II. pp. 350 and seq.) who seeks to justify thereby the star-worship of his church. At any rate no Roman Catholic would venture to deny or even contradict any of the given facts.
In the middle of the VIIIth Cent. A.D. the Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg, famous in the annals of Magic, was charged with and convicted by the 2nd Council of Rome presided over by the Pope Zacharia—of using during his performances of ceremonial magic the names of the “seven spirits,”—among others that of URIEL, by the power of which he had succeeded to produce his greatest phenomena. As already stated the church is not against Magic proper, but only against those Magicians who fail to conform to her methods and rules of evolution [evocation?]. As the wonders wrought by the holy Sorcerer were not of that character that would permit of their classification among “miracles by the grace of and to the glory of God”—they were declared unholy. The Archangel URIEL (lux et ignis) having been compromised by such exhibitions his name had to be discredited. The explanation resorted to was crafty, nevertheless unsatisfactory: de Mirville assures his reader that “this” Uriel was not the one mentioned by Esdras and so revered by the “Fathers of the Church,”1 but quite another sidereal being. The Bishop Adalbert was sentenced and suspended. But, he had a formidable party behind him, in Germany, that thoroughly supported him. The famous Father Gastaldi moreover the Dominican monk and Inquisitor having proven in his great work “On the Angels” that the worship of the “Seven Spirits” by the church was legal, the name of Uriel appears to have been left, at that time merely under a strong suspicion. According to her invariable policy the church declared that “Uriel the blessed Archangel” had nought to do with Uriel, the demonical power used by and ever ready to serve the Kabalist.
To make the whole thing clear to the students of occultism, the hierarchy of the primal heavenly Powers as taught by the Occult Doctrine has to be recalled. The World of Being begins with the Seven “Sons of Light” the Dhyan-Chohans, who are the Hindu Rishis, as will be shown. They are called “Double” on account of their belonging to, and leading, so to say, a dual life on heaven and on Earth.2 It is our Dhyan-Chohans then, who became the sidereal gods of the Sabians, later on, who have also become the Archangels of the Church, under their Jewish Kabalistical names. These are—MIKAEL—the quis ut Deus, or “like unto God”; GABRIEL—the “Strength or Power of God”; RAPHAEL, or “divine Virtue”; URIEL—God’s light and fire”; SAALTIEL—“Divine Prayer”; JEHUDIEL “the praise of God” and—BARACHIEL “the blessing of God.” These “seven” are absolutely canonical. But this does not alter the fact of their being in name and even in the occult attributes attached to their designations identical with the (a) Aryan Devatas and Rishis, our Dhyan Chohans, the Chaldean, Sabian Gods and the Seven Powers of the Kabalists invoqued [invoked] by these during ceremonial magic. The Kabalistic “Virtues” and the “Seven Seats” in the invisible regions of the Astral World, have thus become with the Roman Catholics and their church Hierarchy—the “seven Virtues” and the seven Thrones, “the Eyes of the Lord” and such other names.
This much explained,—their story may be continued. Until about the XVth c. and after the misadventures of Bishop Adalbert, only the first three names of the seven archangels were in odour of sanctity in the Church. But in 1460, there appeared in Rome a great “Saint,” a Portuguese Monk by the name of Amadeus.3 He soon became famous for his prophecies and beatific visions, during one of which, he had a revelation. The “Seven” appeared to the Saint and revealed to him their real primeval names, adding that the Chaldean ones were only substitutes though indeed as correct. Now these, having been used and dragged about too publicly by the Kabalists, the Church very naturally shrinked from using them in the Church Service—except the first three. “They were names of DEMONS”—i.e. of pagan Gods—explains Baronius. But then, asks very pertinently de Mirville,—“if these seven names are those of demons, why are they given to Roman Catholics and other Christians at baptism?”
Any how, at the same hour of Amadeus’ vision at Rome, at Palermo, “a miraculously painted picture of the Seven Spirits, was as miraculously exhumed from under the ruins of an old chapel, on which paintings moreover, were found inscribed the same seven mystery-names that had been revealed to the Saint.” Each name was found traced under one of the angels. Pope Sixtus IV who believed in Amadeus implicitly was greatly impressed with the coincidence. Therefore, when also on that very same day an old prophecy in Archaic Latin referring to the find and revelation was discovered at Pisa—these revelations produced the greatest commotion among the faithful. The prophecy foretold also the revival of the “Planetary-Angels” worship for that very period, and that, under the reign of Pope VIIth the convent of St. François de Paul would be raised on the emplacement of the little ruined chapel—which event occurred as predicted.
But it was only in XVIth century that the church deemed it her duty to comply with the requests of the heavenly visitors in its completeness. If at that time, there was hardly a church or chapel in all Italy that had not a copy of the miraculous picture either in painting or mosaic, and that actually, in 1576, a splendid “temple to the Seven spirits” had been raised and finished near the ruined chapel at Palermo—the Angels failed to be satisfied. In the words of their Chronicler—“the blessed Spirits were not contented with Sicily alone. They wanted a world-wide worship and the Whole Catholic world to recognize them.”
Heavenly denizens themselves, it seems, are not free from ambition and vanity on quite a material plane!
Antonio Duca, another “Seer” (otherwise a MEDIUM of the Church of Rome) had been named the Rector of the above named “temple of the Seven Spirits” and began about that period to have the same beatific visions. The “Archangels” would not cease pressing him to have the Popes recognize them and to establish a regular worship in their names. As Duca submitted his visions and the messages he was entrusted with to the approval of the Church, the revelations made to him, were of course, accepted as authentic and declared divine.
There has [have] been a good many “Seers” of that sort—priests and laymen—during the early centuries of Christianity, and the middle ages. Occasionally there are such even in our own days of materialism and unbelief. The question of authenticity of those phenomenal occurrences and the trustworthiness of the agents chosen by the invisible visitors, rests on the methods adopted and the concern taken in them by the Church.
Thus the “Spirits” went on clamoring through Antonio Duca, demanding a wider recognition and a more solemn worship than they hitherto had received. They insisted upon having a special temple built for them alone on the emplacement of the famous Thermæ of Diocletian, on which according to tradition 40,000 Christians and 10,000 Martyrs were put to death. In a bull of Pope Pius IV the place [was] referred to as “ a den of profanity used for demonical (magic) practices.”
But there was still the difficulty which the reader is asked to bear in mind. The “Mystery-names” of the seven Angels could not be given: when the old and “miraculous” picture had been found, the seven names inscribed on it had been freely used in the church services, and—had provoked remarks. At the period of the Renaissance, however Pope Clement XI had ordered a report to be made to him on the picture and especially the names on it, with which delicate mission a famous astronomer of that day, one named Joseph Biancini, a Jesuit—was entrusted. The result to which the astronomer’s inquest led to was as unexpected as it seemed fatal to the worshippers of the Seven Sabian Gods: the Pope, while commanding that the picture should be preserved, ordered the Seven Angelic names carefully rubbed out—“though these names are traditional and that they have naught to do with, and were even very different from the names used by Adalbert.” (the Bishop-Magician of Magdeburg—cunningly adds and explains the Marquis de Mirville (p. 357).
Thus for nearly a period of thirty four years, Duca had to work in vain, before a church appeared on the spot that had been selected by the Seven Angels; and then it was only called “church of St. Mary,[”] the “Holy” ones. A war soon broke out during which that Church was completely destroyed. But revelations—the written as well as the verbal messages—from the “Angels” never ceased, meanwhile. They still clamoured through Duca, as loudly as ever for a special “Temple of the Seven Spirits” on the Thermæ.
Thus the affairs went on from 1527 till 1561; the Rector trying to satisfy the orders of the Seven Spirits—the church fearing to adopt the Chaldean Substitutes for the [“]mystery names” as they had been so desecrated by magical practices. We are not told, however, why the Mystery names should not be given in such emergency—the “Seven” had never prohibited their use.
But the reason is self-evident; they were used as the true Chaldean forms of the Jewish exoteric names, now known to all, by the greatest Kabalists and were absolutely magical. Some of them are still to be found in old Roman missals, printed in 1563. There is one, perhaps, there are two, in the Barberini library with the mass-service in them and the forbidden, truly Sabian names of the “Seven great Gods” flashing out hither and thither.
Finally, “in consequence of a terrible epidemic of obsession and possession in 1553, when nearly all Rome saw itself possessed by the devil”—says the Chronicler (without explaining whether the clergy were included)—Duca’s wish was realized. His Seven Inspirers were invoked and the epidemic ceased as by enchantment; the blessed ones “proving by their miraculous power that they had nothing in common with the demons of the same name” used by the Kabalist.4
Then Michael Angelo was summoned in all haste by Paul IV to the Vatican.” His magnificent plan was accepted and the building of the famous Church begun. Its construction lasted three years. In the archives of this now celebrated monument one can read that: “The narrative of the miracles that occurred during that period could not be undertaken, as it was one incessant miracle of three years duration.”
In the presence of all his cardinals, Pope Paul IV ordered that the seven names as originally written on the picture, should be restored and inscribed around the large copy from it that surmounts to this day the high Altar.
The admirable temple was consecrated to the Seven Angels in 1561. The object of the Spirits was reached; three years later, nearly simultaneously Michael Angelo and Antonio Duca both died. They were no longer needed.
But what became of the names, the “mystery names”? First of all, came the substitution of the name EUDIEL, for one of the seven well known Kabalistic names;—then, just one hundred years later, by order of the Cardinal Albitius all the seven names disappeared again one fine day. A little while after that, the mass and Vesper Services of the Seven Angels were eliminated from the Missals used, though the “Seven” we are still informed by de Mirville “are quite distinct from those other names” (read Kabalstic names). But in 1825 a Spanish grandee supported by the Archbishop of Palermo made an attempt before Leo XII for the simultaneous restablishment of the Service and names. The Pope granted the church service but refused the old adoption of the seven names.5
In 1832 the same demand in the petition to spread the worship of the “Seven Spirits of God,” was reiterated, endorsed this time by eighty-seven bishops and thousand[s] of officials with high sounding names in the Church of Rome. Again, in 1858 Cardinal Patrizzi and King Ferdinand II, in the name of all the people of Italy reiterated their petition. And finally—1882. Thus the Church-Services in honour of the Seven “Spirit-Stars” have never been abrogated since 1825. To this day they are in full vigour in Palermo, in Spain and even in Rome at “St. Mary of the Angels” and the “Jésu,” though entirely suppressed every where else; all this “because of Adalbert’s heresy” Mirville is pleased to think; and we say—on account of the Chaldean rabble and Jewish Kabalists using those “Angel-names” and of something more that will be explained further on.
The Marquis de Mirville is in despair; and, as he dares not blame his church he vents his wrath upon the old Alchemists, the Rosicrucians and the innocent modern mediums. With the courage of the true believer, he denies nothing, and proudly confesses to the worship of Stars, thrown into his teeth by the French Academicians.
“We are accused”—he writes “of having always mistaken stars for angels.6 The accusation is acquiring such a wide notoriety that we are forced to answer it very seriously. It is impossible that we should try to dissimulate it without failing in frankness and courage, since this pretended mistake is repeated incessantly in the Scriptures as in our theology. We shall examine . . . this opinion hitherto so accredited, to say, discredited, and which attributes rightly to our SEVEN PRINCIPAL SPIRITS the rulership, not of the seven known planets, with which we are reproached, but of the seven PRINCIPAL planets which is quite a different thing.”7
And the author hastens to cite the authority of Babinet, the astronomer, who sought to prove in an able article of the Revue des Deux Mondes (May 1855) that in reality, besides the earth we had only SEVEN big planets.
This belief all along its line is Occultism and a dogma of the Secret Doctrine—pure and simple. Only as taught and practiced in the Church Rituals—it is ASTROLOGY as pure and simple. To avoid the accusation and rather embarrassing charges in view of the utter impossibility of denial, the Roman Church would have to resort to the philosophy and the explanations given of the sacredness of number Seven and the mystic connection between the Planetary Spirits (Dhyan Chohans) and their stars—by the Eastern Occultists; and this she will never consent to. Therefore, since after borrowing, Rome will neither acknowledge the origin of her “Angels[”] nor desist in her anathema and public denunciation of Magic, Sabianism and finally Occultism, it is but natural that in their turn the Student of the Sacred Science should tell the truth to her face.
1. [Footnote text not found.]
2. Any one acquainted even superficially with the Brahmanical narratives in the Puranas and other Scriptures about the Rishis, who are first Gods and then men and then again Stars etc.; who are sometimes Seven, then 10 and even 21—will see esoteric meaning underlying their story.
3. He died in Rome 1482.
4. But they had proved their power earlier by sending the war, the destruction of the church and finally the epidemic, and this does not look very angelic—to an Occultist.
5. Considering that the Popes are claiming to be infallible, such difference in their respective opinions does seem rather startling!
6. Pneumatologic des Esprits. Vol II. p. 359 et seq.
7. No one can see the slightest difference in it—except himself. The “principal planets” are not one particle holier than any other—for the Earth is included among the seven principal dominions or abodes of the Seven Chaldean Spirits and has also its [“]mystery god,” which name is in the Missal.