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23 views56 pages

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design 4th Edition J. Beaird Download

The document discusses the 4th edition of 'The Principles of Beautiful Web Design' by J. Beaird, which covers essential web design principles, including layout, color, texture, typography, and imagery. It emphasizes the importance of good design as a balance between various elements and the need for timelessness over fleeting trends. The book is published by SitePoint and is available for download in PDF format.

Uploaded by

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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design 4th Edition J.
Beaird Digital Instant Download
Author(s): J. Beaird, J. George, A. Walker
ISBN(s): 9781925836363, 1925836363
Edition: 4
File Details: PDF, 10.57 MB
Year: 2020
Language: english
i

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition


Copyright © 2020 SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

Product Manager: Simon Mackie


Editor: Ralph Mason
Cover Designer: Alex Walker

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information
herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express
or implied. Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty. Ltd., nor its dealers or distributors will be held
liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in
this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein.

Trademark Notice
Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the
names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of
infringement of the trademark.

Published by SitePoint Pty. Ltd.


Level 1, 110 Johnston St,
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Australia
Web: www.sitepoint.com
Email: [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-925836-36-3 (print)
ISBN 978-1-925836-37-0 (ebook)
Printed and bound in the United States of America
2 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

About the Authors

Jason Beaird is a designer and front-end developer with over ten years of experience working on
a wide range of award-winning web projects. With a background in graphic design and a passion
for web standards, he’s always looking for accessible ways to make the Web a more beautiful
place. When he’s not pushing pixels in Photoshop or tinkering with markup, Jason loves sharing
his passion for the Web with others. He writes about his ideas, adventures, and random projects
on his personal site, jasongraphix.com1.

James George is a professional web designer from the United States, who is passionate about
the field of design. He loves connecting with other designers and developers. James enjoys
working closely with clients and businesses to create powerful, beautiful web design solutions.
You can find him on https://twitter.com/creativebeacon/Twitter2.

Alex Walker has directed SitePoint’s design thinking for two decades through front-end design,
50+ book covers and over 200 articles. His dream is to one day use CSS and SVG to create cold
fusion (the process, not the language). You can find him from time to time on Twitter3.

About SitePoint
SitePoint specializes in publishing fun, practical, and easy-to-understand content for web
professionals. Visit http://www.sitepoint.com/ to access our blogs, books, newsletters, articles,
and community forums. You’ll find a stack of information on JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, mobile
development, design, and more.

1.
http://jasongraphix.com
2.
https://twitter.com/creativebeacon/
3.
https://twitter.com/alexmwalker/
Table of Contents iii

Table of Contents

Preface ......................................................................................................................... xii


Who Should Read This Book? ................................................................................... xiii

Conventions Used ............................................................................................................ xv

Supplementary Materials.............................................................................................xvi

Chapter 1: Layout and Composition ....................................... 17


The Design Process ......................................................................................................... 18

Discovery ................................................................................................................... 19

Client Meetings Don’t Have to Take Place in an Office ........................ 19

Exploration ................................................................................................................ 21

Implementation ...................................................................................................... 21

Defining Good Design .....................................................................................................22

Users Are Pleased by the Design but Drawn to the Content ...........23

Users Can Move about Easily via Intuitive Navigation .........................24

Users Recognize Each Page as Belonging to the Site ........................25

Web Page Anatomy .........................................................................................................26

The Containing block...........................................................................................27

The Logo....................................................................................................................27

The Navigation ........................................................................................................28

The Content .............................................................................................................28


iv The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

The Footer .................................................................................................................28

Whitespace ..............................................................................................................29

Grid Theory ..........................................................................................................................29

The Rule of Thirds .................................................................................................32

CSS Frameworks ...............................................................................................................34

Balance ..................................................................................................................................37

Symmetrical Balance ..........................................................................................37

Asymmetrical Balance ....................................................................................... 40

Unity ........................................................................................................................................44

Proximity ....................................................................................................................44

Repetition ..................................................................................................................46

Emphasis ...............................................................................................................................47

Placement .................................................................................................................48

Continuance .............................................................................................................48

Isolation ......................................................................................................................49

Contrast ......................................................................................................................50

Proportion ................................................................................................................. 51

Bread-and-butter Layouts ...........................................................................................54

Left-column Navigation .....................................................................................54

Right-column Navigation...................................................................................56

Three-column Navigation .................................................................................57

Navigationless Magazine Style .......................................................................59

Bare-bones Minimalism .................................................................................... 60


Table of Contents v

Break the Mould Layouts................................................................................... 61

Web Trends..........................................................................................................................63

Video Backgrounds ..............................................................................................64

Masonry Layouts....................................................................................................65

Parallax Scrolling .................................................................................................. 66

Finding Inspiration ........................................................................................................... 66

Using a Morgue File .........................................................................................................67

Responsive Design .......................................................................................................... 68

Screen Resolutions ......................................................................................................... 69

How Do @media Queries Work? ....................................................................70

Responsive Web Design Principles..........................................................................70

Always Design for “Mobile First” ....................................................................70

Don’t Jam Elements into the Mobile View ................................................ 71

SVG Is Your BFF ......................................................................................................72

Responsive Frameworks ...............................................................................................72

The Project: Trashmonger ............................................................................................75

Assets ..........................................................................................................................75

Requirements ..........................................................................................................76

Sitemap ..................................................................................................................................77

Wireframes ...............................................................................................................78

Chapter 2: Color ...........................................................................................82


The Psychology of Color ...............................................................................................83
vi The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

Color Associations ................................................................................................83

Red ...............................................................................................................................84

Orange ........................................................................................................................84

Yellow ..........................................................................................................................85

Green .......................................................................................................................... 86

Blue ..............................................................................................................................87

Purple ......................................................................................................................... 88

White .......................................................................................................................... 89

Black ........................................................................................................................... 90

Color Temperature ........................................................................................................... 91

Chromatic Value ................................................................................................................92

Saturation ..................................................................................................................92

Color Theory 101 ...............................................................................................................93

Red, Yellow, and Blue, or CMYK ................................................................................ 96

The Scheme of Things .................................................................................................. 98

A Monochromatic Color Scheme.................................................................. 98

Monochromatic Color Scheme in the Real World ................................ 99

An Analogous Color Scheme........................................................................ 103

Analogous Color Scheme Examples ........................................................ 104

A Complementary Color Scheme .............................................................. 106

Complementary Color Scheme Examples............................................. 107

Common Complementary Pitfalls................................................................111

Split-complementary, Triadic, and Tetradic............................................ 113


Table of Contents vii

Other Variants........................................................................................................116

Creating a Palette ........................................................................................................... 117

Hexadecimal Notation ...................................................................................... 117

Color Tools and Resources ........................................................................................118

Paletton ....................................................................................................................119

Colormind............................................................................................................... 120

Adobe Color ........................................................................................................... 121

COLOURlovers ...................................................................................................... 121

Colour Contrast Check......................................................................................122

The Application: Choosing a Color Palette .........................................................123

Chapter 3: Texture ...................................................................................127


Point ..................................................................................................................................... 128

Line ....................................................................................................................................... 130

Shape .................................................................................................................................... 131

Designing in CSS ..................................................................................................137

Rotation and Angles .......................................................................................... 138

Directing the Eye ................................................................................................ 139

Putting It Into Practice ....................................................................................... 141

Volume and Depth .........................................................................................................142

Perspective .............................................................................................................143

Proportion ...............................................................................................................143

Light and Shadow ...............................................................................................144


viii The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

From 3D Renders to Flat design ...................................................................145

Flat Design ............................................................................................................. 146

Is UI Design Still a Flat Earth? ........................................................................147

Photoshop Filters ............................................................................................... 148

Pattern ................................................................................................................................. 148

Building Texture: Vintage, Patterned, Worn, and Nostalgic Styles .........153

Paper Grain .............................................................................................................153

Paints, Pencils and Other Traditional Media .......................................... 156

Faded Memories ..................................................................................................157

The Digital Retro Look ..................................................................................... 158

Halftone and Ben Day Dots ........................................................................... 158

DIY Halftones........................................................................................................ 160

Starting Your Own Textural Trends ............................................................ 162

Application: Adding a Design Motif Using SVG Patterns ............................ 162

Using a Pattern as a Motif .......................................................................................... 164

Chapter 4: Typography ...................................................................... 166


Taking Type to the Web .............................................................................................. 169

Self-hosted Web Fonts ..................................................................................... 171

Web Font Services ..............................................................................................172

Anatomy of a Letterform .............................................................................................174

Text Spacing ......................................................................................................................177

Horizontal Spacing..............................................................................................177
Table of Contents ix

Vertical Spacing .................................................................................................. 179

Text Alignment ................................................................................................................ 180

Typeface Distinctions ....................................................................................................181

Serif Fonts .............................................................................................................. 183

Sans-serif Fonts................................................................................................... 187

Handwritten Fonts ............................................................................................. 189

Fixed-width Fonts............................................................................................... 192

Novelty Fonts ....................................................................................................... 194

Dingbat Fonts ....................................................................................................... 197

Finding Fonts.................................................................................................................... 199

Free Font Galleries .............................................................................................200

Commercial Font Galleries ............................................................................200

Individual Artists and Foundries .................................................................. 201

Choosing the Right Fonts ........................................................................................... 201

Establishing a Typographic System ......................................................................204

Typical Body Font Sizes...................................................................................205

Scaling Your Type ..........................................................................................................205

Type Scaling in Practice ..................................................................................206

Mobile Considerations .....................................................................................207

Vertical Baseline Rhythm ...........................................................................................209

Vertical Baseline Rhythm Is a Tool, Not a Religion ..............................214

The Takeaway ...................................................................................................................215

The Project: Building a Type System .....................................................................215


x The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

Creating a Basic Typography Style Guide ...............................................217

Adding a Visual Grid .......................................................................................... 218

What Now?........................................................................................................................220

Chapter 5: Imagery .................................................................................221


What to Look For ........................................................................................................... 223

Question 1: Is It Relevant? ............................................................................... 223

Question 2: Is It Interesting? .......................................................................... 224

Question 3: Is It Appealing? ........................................................................... 225

Legitimate Image Sources ........................................................................................ 227

Take It or Make It ................................................................................................. 227

Stock Photography ............................................................................................ 229

Getting Professional Help ...............................................................................241

How Not to Impress ...................................................................................................... 243

Google Ganking................................................................................................... 243

Hotlinking ............................................................................................................... 243

Clip Art ..................................................................................................................... 244

Image Presentation ....................................................................................................... 245

Creative Cropping .............................................................................................. 245

Image Adjustments ............................................................................................251

Filters ........................................................................................................................ 257

File Formats and Resolutions...................................................................................262

Creative Image Treatments.......................................................................................264


Table of Contents xi

Using Images to Enhance Images ..............................................................265

Using Pure CSS to Enhance Images ..........................................................268

Breaking ..................................................................................................................270

The Project: Pulling the Design Together ...........................................................271

Pulling in the Pattern Motif ............................................................................ 274

Complete: Trashmonger v1.0 ........................................................................276

Onward and Upward ....................................................................................................276


xii The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

Preface
When my wife and I moved into our house, one of our first major projects was to update the
bathroom. The horribly gaudy floral wallpaper pattern, along with the gold sink fixtures,
obnoxious mirrors, and tacky lighting, made us feel like we’d stepped into a previous decade
every time we entered the master bathroom. Removing wallpaper is a tough job, but it’s even
more difficult when there are multiple layers of the stuff. This was the case with our bathroom.
Apparently the previous homeowners’ taste in wallpaper changed every few years, and rather
than stripping off the wallpaper and starting over, they just covered ugly with more ugly. Ah, the
joys of home ownership!

If there’s one thing our renovation adventures have taught me, it’s that there are strong parallels
between designing a room’s decor and designing a good website.

Good design is about the relationships between the elements involved, and
creating a balance between them.

Whether we’re talking about a website or bathroom makeover, throwing up a new layer of
wallpaper or changing the background color isn’t a design solution in itself—it’s just part of a
solution. While we removed the wallpaper and rollered some paint onto our bathroom, we also
had to change the light fixtures, remove the gold-trimmed shower doors, replace the mirrors,
upgrade the lighting, paint the cabinets, change the switches and plugs, and scrape off the
popcorn ceilings. If we’d just removed the tacky wallpaper and left all the other stuff, we’d still
have an outdated bathroom. Website design is similar: you can only do so many minor updates
before the time comes to scrap what you have and start over.

Fads come and go, but good design is timeless.

Conforming to the latest design trends is a good way to ensure temporary public appeal, but how
long will those trends last? As far as I know, there was hardly ever a time when marquee and blink
tags were accepted as professional web design markup … but scrolling JavaScript news tickers,
“high readability” hit-counters, and chunky table borders have graced the home pages of many
high-profile sites in the past. These are the shag carpets, sparkly acoustic ceilings, and faux
wood paneling of the web design world. Take a trip in the Internet Wayback Machine, and look for
late-nineties versions of some of the top Fortune 500 and pre-dot-com, boom-era websites. Try
Preface xiii

to find examples of good and bad design. In the midst of some of the most outdated, laughable
websites, you’re likely to find some pages that still look surprisingly relevant. Most likely, these
designs aren’t dependent on flashy Photoshop filters or trendy image treatments. As you read
this book, keep in mind that good design transcends technology.

The finishing touches make a big impression.

I’ve heard it argued that deep down, people really love “anti-marketing design.” The idea is that
we trust sites that have an unpolished appearance and feel amateurish. I think this argument
misses the point. No matter what type of website you’re developing, the design should be as
intentional as the functionality. My wife and I didn’t change the functionality of our bathroom with
the work that we did. We just fine-tuned the details, but it made a world of difference. Some
people might have been able to live with the bathroom the way it was, but I doubt you’d find
anyone who would say it was exactly what they wanted.

Similarly, if you’re spending time developing a website, you should take time to design it. Under
no circumstances should the design feel unpolished or haphazard. If you want to come off as
edgy, anti-marketing, and non-corporate, then do it, and do it well—but there’s no reason to be
ignorant about, or feel intimidated by, design.

Our goal with this book is simple: to present what we know about designing for the Web in a way
that anyone can understand and apply. Why? Because the basics of website design should be
common knowledge. We all live in and work on an internet that has been blindly covering up ugly
with more ugly since its inception. It’s time to break that chain and make bold moves toward
better design.

– Jason

Who Should Read This Book?


If you’re squeamish about choosing colors, feel uninspired by a blank browser window, or get lost
trying to choose the right font, this book is for you. I take a methodical approach to presenting
traditional graphic design theory as it applies to today’s website development industry. While the
content is directed towards web programmers and developers, it provides a design primer and
relevant examples that will benefit readers at any level.

What’s in This Book

This book comprises the following five chapters. You can read them from beginning to end to
xiv The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

gain a complete understanding of the subject, or skip around if you only need a refresher on a
particular topic.

Chapter 1: Layout and Composition

An awareness of design relies heavily on understanding the spatial relationships that exist
between the individual components of a design. The layout chapter kicks off the design process
by investigating possible page components. With these blocks defined, we discuss some tools
and examples that will help you start your own designs on a solid foundation. To wrap up this
discussion, we’ll begin a project that we'll follow through each chapter—Trashmonger.

Chapter 2: Color

Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of design is the topic of color selection. Chapter 2 sheds
light on this as we delve into both the aesthetic and scientific aspects of color theory. Armed with
these simple guidelines, and some tips for creating harmonious color combinations, you’ll see
how anyone can choose a set of colors that work well together to complement the overall
message of a website. Finally, we’ll look at how our color palette influences our Trashmonger
project.

Chapter 3: Texture

An aspect of web design that’s often overlooked, texture is the key to creating designs that stand
out. By understanding how the individual elements of texture function, you’ll learn how to use
points, lines, and shapes to communicate and support your site’s message on a number of levels.
We’ll then get to see firsthand how subtle textures helped shape the identity and character of
our example website.

Chapter 4: Typography

The importance of typography is undeniable. Type is everywhere, and understanding the


mechanics of written language is essential for any visual designer. In this chapter, we’ll dive
beneath the surface of this rich topic, exploring the basics of the letterform, and investigating
various typeface distinctions. We'll also construct a practical type system for our Trahmonger
project.

Chapter 5: Imagery

The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations that grace
its pages. In the final chapter, we’ll discuss what we should look for in the visual elements that we
use on our pages, and locate sources of legitimate supporting imagery. Of course, finding the
Preface xv

right image is often just the beginning. We’ll also learn some image-editing basics before we see
the final steps in our example project.

Conventions Used
You’ll notice that we’ve used certain typographic and layout styles throughout this book to
signify different types of information. Look out for the following items.

Code Samples

Code in this book is displayed using a fixed-width font, like so:

<h1>A Perfect Summer's Day</h1>


<p>It was a lovely day for a walk in the park.
The birds were singing and the kids were all back at school.</p>

Where existing code is required for context, rather than repeat all of it, ⋮ will be displayed:

function animate() {

new_variable = "Hello";
}

Some lines of code should be entered on one line, but we’ve had to wrap them because of page
constraints. An ➥ indicates a line break that exists for formatting purposes only, and should be
ignored:

URL.open("http://www.sitepoint.com/responsive-web-
➥design-real-user-testing/?responsive1");
xvi The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

Tips, Notes, and Warnings

Hey, You!

Tips provide helpful little pointers.

Ahem, Excuse Me ...

Notes are useful asides that are related—but not critical—to the topic at hand. Think of
them as extra tidbits of information.

Make Sure You Always ...

... pay attention to these important points.

Watch Out!

Warnings highlight any gotchas that are likely to trip you up along the way.

CodePen Demo

This example has an associated CodePen demo

Supplementary Materials
https://www.sitepoint.com/community/ are SitePoint’s forums, for help on any tricky
problems.
[email protected] is our email address, should you need to contact us to report a
problem, or for any other reason.
Layout and Composition 17

Chapter

1
Layout and
Composition
18 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

For many web developers, myself included, the most intimidating part of the design process is
getting started. Imagine for a moment that you’re sitting at your desk with nothing other than a
cup of coffee and the business card of a potential client who needs a basic corporate website.
Usually, a business card speaks volumes about a company’s identity, and can be used as design
inspiration.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the card for Smith’s Services below. It’s black and white, all
text, no character. Bleurgh! Talk about a blank canvas! So, where do you go from here? You need a
plan … and you need to contact Mr. Smith. With some critical input from the client about what his
company actually does, and by gathering information about the content you have to work with,
you’ll be able to come up with a successful design.

1-1. A bland client business card

Anyone, no matter what level of artistic talent, can come up with a design that works well and
looks good. All it takes is a little experience and a working knowledge of some basic layout
principles. So let’s start with the basics, and before long you’ll have the foundation necessary to
design gallery-quality websites.

The Design Process


Designing a website can be a double-edged sword. The process falls somewhere between art,
science, and problem solving. Yes, we want to create an individual site that’s aesthetically
Layout and Composition 19

pleasing, but our highest priority should be to meet the needs of our client. These needs may be
lofty and elaborate, or they may just be about making information available. If we fail to listen
carefully, though, the entire project will come falling down. The process of creating a design
comp, however, can be boiled down to just three key tasks: discovery, exploration, and
implementation.

What’s a Comp?

The word comp is an abbreviation of the phrase “comprehensive dummy”—a term that
comes from the print design world. It’s a complete simulation of a printed layout that’s
created before the layout goes to press. In translating this term to web design, a comp
is an image of a layout that’s created before we begin to prototype the design in
HTML.

Discovery

The discovery component of the design process is about meeting the clients and learning what
they do. This may feel a little counterintuitive, but gathering information about who your clients
are and how they run their business is vital in coming up with an appropriate and effective design.

Before you schedule your first meeting with a client, spend some time researching their
business. If they’ve asked you to design a website, they may currently be without one, but google
them anyway. If you’re unable to find any information about their business specifically, try to learn
as much as you can about their industry before the first meeting. Whenever possible, the first
meeting with a client should be conducted in person. Sometimes, distance will dictate that the
meeting has to occur over the phone, but if the client is in town, schedule a time to meet face to
face.

Keep in mind that this meeting is less about impressing the client, selling yourself, or selling a
website than it is about communication and establishing just what it is the client wants. Try to
listen more than you speak, and bring a pad for taking notes. If you bring a laptop or tablet with
you to talk about website examples, limit the time spent using it. Computers have screens, and
people tend to stare at them, which isn’t conducive to a good meeting or to note taking. If you
must drag some technology into the meeting, use a voice recording app to record the
conversation—with the client’s permission, of course. In my experience, though, pen and pad are
less threatening and far less distracting to the often not-so-tech-savvy client.

Client Meetings Don’t Have to Take Place in an Office

Even when I worked for a company in a big office, I had some of my most productive client
20 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 4th Edition

meetings at a café or over lunch. The feasibility of this approach depends on the client. If your
contact seems to be more the formal business type, don’t suggest it. In many cases, though, it’s a
good way to make a business meeting more personal.

Below are some of the questions I like to ask in initial client meetings, even if I’ve already
established the answer myself via a search engine.

If the project is a new website development:

What does the company do?


What is your role in the company? (This question is especially important if this person is going
to be your main point of contact.)
Does the company have an existing logo or brand?
What is your goal in developing a website?
What information do you wish to provide online?
Who are your competitors and do they have websites?
Do you have examples of websites you like or dislike?

If the project is to redesign an existing website, I also like to ask:

What are your visitors usually looking for when they come to your site?
What are the problems with your current design?
What do you hope to achieve with a redesign?
Are there any elements of the current site that you want to keep?
How do you think your visitors will react to a new site design?

If the project is a new app development:

What is the goal of the app?


What platforms does it need to work on (web/native)?

In all three cases I like to ask:

Do you have examples of apps/sites you like or dislike?


Are there competitors to the app/site in this field?
Who comprises your target audience? Do its members share any common demographics, like
age, sex, or a physical location?
What kind of timeline do you have for the project and what is the budget?

Sometimes I start off with more questions than those listed here. Use your imagination and try to
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The very first aphorisms of “Light on the Path,” included under
Number I. have, I know well, remained sealed as to their inner
meaning to many who have otherwise followed the purpose of the
book.
There are four proven and certain truths with regard to the
entrance to occultism. The Gates of Gold bar that threshold; yet
there are some who pass those gates and discover the sublime and
illimitable beyond. In the far spaces of Time all will pass those gates.
But I am one who wish that Time, the great deluder, were not so
over-masterful. To those who know and love him I have no word to
say; but to the others—and there are not so very few as some may
fancy—to whom the passage of Time is as the stroke of a sledge-
hammer, and the sense of Space like the bars of an iron cage, I will
translate and re-translate until they understand fully.
The four truths written on the first page of “Light on the Path,”
refer to the trial initiation of the would-be occultist. Until he has
passed it, he cannot even reach to the latch of the gate which
admits to knowledge. Knowledge is man’s greatest inheritance; why,
then, should he not attempt to reach it by every possible road? The
laboratory is not the only ground for experiment; science, we must
remember, is derived from sciens, present participle of scire, “to
know,”—its origin is similar to that of the word “discern,” “to ken.”
Science does not therefore deal only with matter, no, not even its
subtlest and obscurest forms. Such an idea is born merely of the idle
spirit of the age. Science is a word which covers all forms of
knowledge. It is exceedingly interesting to hear what chemists
discover, and to see them finding their way through the densities of
matter to its finer forms; but there are other kinds of knowledge
than this, and it is not every one who restricts his (strictly scientific)
desire for knowledge to experiments which are capable of being
tested by the physical senses.
Everyone who is not a dullard, or a man stupefied by some
predominant vice, has guessed, or even perhaps discovered with
some certainty, that there are subtle senses lying within the physical
senses. There is nothing at all extraordinary in this; if we took the
trouble to call Nature into the witness box we should find that
everything which is perceptible to the ordinary sight, has something
even more important than itself hidden within it; the microscope has
opened a world to us, but within those encasements which the
microscope reveals, lies a mystery which no machinery can probe.
The whole world is animated and lit, down to its most material
shapes, by a world within it. This inner world is called Astral by some
people, and it is as good a word as any other, though it merely
means starry; but the stars, as Locke pointed out, are luminous
bodies which give light of themselves. This quality is characteristic of
the life which lies within matter; for those who see it, need no lamp
to see it by. The word star, moreover, is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon “stir-an,” to steer, to stir, to move, and undeniably it is the
inner life which is master of the outer, just as a man’s brain guides
the movements of his lips. So that although Astral is no very
excellent word in itself, I am content to use it for my present
purpose.
The whole of “Light on the Path” is written in an astral cipher and
can therefore only be deciphered by one who reads astrally. And its
teaching is chiefly directed towards the cultivation and development
of the astral life. Until the first step has been taken in this
development, the swift knowledge, which is called intuition with
certainty, is impossible to man. And this positive and certain intuition
is the only form of knowledge which enables a man to work rapidly
or reach his true and high estate, within the limit of his conscious
effort. To obtain knowledge by experiment is too tedious a method
for those who aspire to accomplish real work; he who gets it by
certain intuition, lays hands on its various forms with supreme
rapidity, by fierce effort of will; as a determined workman grasps his
tools, indifferent to their weight or any other difficulty which may
stand in his way. He does not stay for each to be tested—he uses
such as he sees are fittest.
All the rules contained in “Light on the Path,” are written for all
disciples, but only for disciples—those who “take knowledge.” To
none else but the student in this school are its laws of any use or
interest.
To all who are interested seriously in Occultism, I say first—take
knowledge. To him who hath shall be given. It is useless to wait for
it. The womb of Time will close before you, and in later days you will
remain unborn, without power. I therefore say to those who have
any hunger or thirst for knowledge, attend to these rules.
They are none of my handicraft or invention. They are merely the
phrasing of laws in super-nature, the putting into words truths as
absolute in their own sphere, as those laws which govern the
conduct of the earth and its atmosphere.
The senses spoken of in these four statements are the astral, or
inner senses.
No man desires to see that light which illumines the spaceless soul
until pain and sorrow and despair have driven him away from the life
of ordinary humanity. First he wears out pleasure; then he wears out
pain—till, at last, his eyes become incapable of tears.
This is a truism, although I know perfectly well that it will meet
with a vehement denial from many who are in sympathy with
thoughts which spring from the inner life. To see with the astral
sense of sight is a form of activity which it is difficult for us to
understand immediately. The scientist knows very well what a
miracle is achieved by each child that is born into the world, when it
first conquers its eye-sight and compels it to obey its brain. An equal
miracle is performed with each sense certainly, but this ordering of
sight is perhaps the most stupendous effort. Yet the child does it
almost unconsciously, by force of the powerful heredity of habit. No
one now is aware that he has ever done it at all; just as we cannot
recollect the individual movements which enabled us to walk up a hill
a year ago. This arises from the fact that we move and live and have
our being in matter. Our knowledge of it has become intuitive.
With our astral life it is very much otherwise. For long ages past,
man has paid very little attention to it—so little, that he has
practically lost the use of his senses. It is true, that in every
civilization the star arises, and man confesses, with more or less of
folly and confusion, that he knows himself to be. But most often he
denies it, and in being a materialist becomes that strange thing, a
being which cannot see its own light, a thing of life which will not
live, an astral animal which has eyes, and ears, and speech, and
power, yet will use none of these gifts. This is the case, and the habit
of ignorance has become so confirmed, that now none will see with
the inner vision till agony has made the physical eyes not only
unseeing, but without tears—the moisture of life. To be incapable of
tears is to have faced and conquered the simple human nature, and
to have attained an equilibrium which cannot be shaken by personal
emotions. It does not imply any hardness of heart, or any
indifference. It does not imply the exhaustion of sorrow, when the
suffering soul seems powerless to suffer acutely any longer; it does
not mean the deadness of old age, when emotion is becoming dull
because the strings which vibrate to it are wearing out. None of
these conditions are fit for a disciple, and if any one of them exist in
him, it must be overcome before the path can be entered upon.
Hardness of heart belongs to the selfish man, the egotist, to whom
the gate is for ever closed. Indifference belongs to the fool and the
false philosopher; those whose lukewarmness makes them mere
puppets, not strong enough to face the realities of existence. When
pain or sorrow has worn out the keenness of suffering, the result is a
lethargy not unlike that which accompanies old age, as it is usually
experienced by men and women. Such a condition makes the
entrance to the path impossible, because the first step is one of
difficulty and needs a strong man, full of psychic and physical vigour,
to attempt it.
It is a truth, that, as Edgar Allan Poe said, the eyes are the
windows for the soul, the windows of that haunted palace in which it
dwells. This is the very nearest interpretation into ordinary language
of the meaning of the text. If grief, dismay, disappointment or
pleasure, can shake the soul so that it loses its fixed hold on the
calm spirit which inspires it, and the moisture of life breaks forth,
drowning knowledge in sensation, then all is blurred, the windows
are darkened, the light is useless. This is as literal a fact as that if a
man, at the edge of a precipice, loses his nerve through some
sudden emotion he will certainly fall. The poise of the body, the
balance, must be preserved, not only in dangerous places, but even
on the level ground, and with all the assistance Nature gives us by
the law of gravitation. So it is with the soul, it is the link between the
outer body and the starry spirit beyond; the divine spark dwells in
the still place where no convulsion of Nature can shake the air; this
is so always. But the soul may lose its hold on that, its knowledge of
it, even though these two are part of one whole; and it is by
emotion, by sensation, that this hold is loosed. To suffer either
pleasure or pain, causes a vivid vibration which is, to the
consciousness of man, life. Now this sensibility does not lessen when
the disciple enters upon his training; it increases. It is the first test of
his strength; he must suffer, must enjoy or endure, more keenly than
other men, while yet he has taken on him a duty which does not
exist for other men, that of not allowing his suffering to shake him
from his fixed purpose. He has, in fact, at the first step to take
himself steadily in hand and put the bit into his own mouth; no one
else can do it for him.
The first four aphorisms of “Light on the Path,” refer entirely to
astral development. This development must be accomplished to a
certain extent—that is to say it must be fully entered upon—before
the remainder of the book is really intelligible except to the intellect;
in fact, before it can be read as a practical, not a metaphysical
treatise.
In one of the great mystic Brotherhoods, there are four
ceremonies, that take place early in the year, which practically
illustrate and elucidate these aphorisms. They are ceremonies in
which only novices take part, for they are simply services of the
threshold. But it will show how serious a thing it is to become a
disciple, when it is understood that these are all ceremonies of
sacrifice. The first one is this of which I have been speaking. The
keenest enjoyment, the bitterest pain, the anguish of loss and
despair, are brought to bear on the trembling soul, which has not yet
found light in the darkness, which is helpless as a blind man is, and
until these shocks can be endured without loss of equilibrium the
astral senses must remain sealed. This is the merciful law. The
“medium,” or “spiritualist,” who rushes into the psychic world without
preparation, is a law-breaker, a breaker of the laws of super-nature.
Those who break Nature’s laws lose their physical health; those who
break the laws of the inner life, lose their psychic health. “Mediums”
become mad, suicides, miserable creatures devoid of moral sense;
and often end as unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own
eyes have seen. The disciple is compelled to become his own master
before he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face
those beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we
call masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to
control not only themselves but the forces around them.
The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of sensation as
distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory or oscillating, as
distinguished from fixed. That is the nearest literal representation of
the fact; but it is only literal to the intellect, not to the intuition. For
this part of man’s consciousness a different vocabulary is needed.
The idea of “fixed” might perhaps be transposed into that of “at
home.” In sensation no permanent home can be found, because
change is the law of this vibratory existence. That fact is the first one
which must be learned by the disciple. It is useless to pause and
weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed.
It is a very well-known fact, one with which Bulwer Lytton dealt
with great power, that an intolerable sadness is the very first
experience of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blankness falls
upon him which makes the world a waste, and life a vain exertion.
This follows his first serious contemplation of the abstract. In gazing,
or even in attempting to gaze, on the ineffable mystery of his own
higher nature, he himself causes the initial trial to fall on him. The
oscillation between pleasure and pain ceases for—perhaps an instant
of time; but that is enough to have cut him loose from his fast
moorings in the world of sensation. He has experienced, however
briefly, the greater life; and he goes on with ordinary existence
weighted by a sense of unreality, of blank, of horrid negation. This
was the nightmare which visited Bulwer Lytton’s neophyte in
“Zanoni”; and even Zanoni himself, who had learned great truths,
and been entrusted with great powers, had not actually passed the
threshold where fear and hope, despair and joy seem at one
moment absolute realities, at the next mere forms of fancy.
This initial trial is often brought on us by life itself. For life is after
all, the great teacher. We return to study it, after we have acquired
power over it, just as the master in chemistry learns more in the
laboratory than his pupil does. There are persons so near the door of
knowledge that life itself prepares them for it, and no individual hand
has to invoke the hideous guardian of the entrance. These must
naturally be keen and powerful organizations, capable of the most
vivid pleasure; then pain comes and fills its great duty. The most
intense forms of suffering fall on such a nature, till at last it arouses
from its stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal
vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace. Then the
vibration of life loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive nature must
suffer still; but the soul has freed itself and stands aloof, guiding the
life towards its greatness. Those who are the subjects of Time, and
go slowly through all his spaces, live on through a long-drawn series
of sensations, and suffer a constant mingling of pleasure and of pain.
They do not dare to take the snake of self in a steady grasp and
conquer it, so becoming divine; but prefer to go on fretting through
divers experiences, suffering blows from the opposing forces.
When one of these subjects of Time decides to enter on the path
of Occultism, it is this which is his first task. If life has not taught it
to him, if he is not strong enough to teach himself, and if he has
power enough to demand the help of a master, then this fearful trial,
depicted in Zanoni, is put upon him. The oscillation in which he lives,
is for an instant stilled; and he has to survive the shock of facing
what seems to him at first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till
he has learned to dwell in this abyss, and has found its peace, is it
possible for his eyes to have become incapable of tears.
The difficulty of writing intelligibly on these subjects is so great
that I beg of those who have found any interest in this article, and
are yet left with perplexities and doubts, to address me in the
correspondence column of this magazine. I ask this because
thoughtful questions are as great an assistance to the general reader
as the answers to them.
Δ
(To be continued.)

Harmony is the law of life, discord its shadow, whence springs


suffering, the teacher, the awakener of consciousness.

Through joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, the soul comes to a
knowledge of itself; then begins the task of learning the laws of life,
that the discords may be resolved, and the harmony be restored.

The eyes of wisdom are like the ocean depths; there is neither joy
nor sorrow in them; therefore the soul of the occultist must become
stronger than joy, and greater than sorrow.
THE HISTORY OF A PLANET.

N o star, among the countless myriads that twinkle over the sidereal
fields of the night sky, shines so dazzlingly as the planet Venus—
not even Sirius-Sothis, the dog-star, beloved by Isis. Venus is the
queen among our planets, the crown jewel of our solar system. She
is the inspirer of the poet, the guardian and companion of the lonely
shepherd, the lovely morning and the evening star. For,

“Stars teach as well as shine.”

although their secrets are still untold and unrevealed to the


majority of men, including astronomers. They are “a beauty and a
mystery,” verily. But “where there is a mystery, it is generally
supposed that there must also be evil,” says Byron. Evil, therefore,
was detected by evilly-disposed human fancy, even in those bright
luminous eyes peeping at our wicked world through the veil of ether.
Thus there came to exist slandered stars and planets as well as
slandered men and women. Too often are the reputation and fortune
of one man or party sacrificed for the benefit of another man or
party. As on earth below, so in the heavens above, and Venus, the
sister planet of our Earth,[4] was sacrificed to the ambition of our
little globe to show the latter the “chosen” planet of the Lord. She
became the scapegoat, the Azaziel of the starry dome, for the sins of
the Earth, or rather for those of a certain class in the human family—
the clergy—who slandered the bright orb, in order to prove what
their ambition suggested to them as the best means to reach power,
and exercise it unswervingly over the superstitious and ignorant
masses.
This took place during the middle ages. And now the sin lies black
at the door of Christians and their scientific inspirers, though the
error was successfully raised to the lofty position of a religious
dogma, as many other fictions and inventions have been.
Indeed, the whole sidereal world, planets and their regents—the
ancient gods of poetical paganism—the sun, the moon, the
elements, and the entire host of incalculable worlds—those at least
which happened to be known to the Church Fathers—shared in the
same fate. They have all been slandered, all bedevilled by the
insatiable desire of proving one little system of theology—built on
and constructed out of old pagan materials—the only right and holy
one, and all those which preceded or followed it utterly wrong. Sun
and stars, the very air itself, we are asked to believe, became pure
and “redeemed” from original sin and the Satanic element of
heathenism, only after the year I, A.D. Scholastics and scholiasts,
the spirit of whom “spurned laborious investigation and slow
induction,” had shown, to the satisfaction of infallible Church, the
whole Kosmos in the power of Satan—a poor compliment to God—
before the year of the Nativity; and Christians had to believe or be
condemned. Never have subtle sophistry and casuistry shown
themselves so plainly in their true light, however, as in the questions
of the ex-Satanism and later redemption of various heavenly bodies.
Poor beautiful Venus got worsted in that war of so-called divine
proofs to a greater degree than any of her sidereal colleagues. While
the history of the other six planets, and their gradual transformation
from Greco-Aryan gods into Semitic devils, and finally into “divine
attributes of the seven eyes of the Lord,” is known but to the
educated, that of Venus-Lucifer has become a household story
among even the most illiterate in Roman Catholic countries.
This story shall now be told for the benefit of those who may have
neglected their astral mythology.
Venus, characterised by Pythagoras as the sol alter, a second Sun,
on account of her magnificent radiance—equalled by none other—
was the first to draw the attention of ancient Theogonists. Before it
began to be called Venus, it was known in pre-Hesiodic theogony as
Eosphoros (or Phosphoros) and Hesperos, the children of the dawn
and twilight. In Hesiod, moreover, the planet is decomposed into two
divine beings, two brothers—Eosphoros (the Lucifer of the Latins)
the morning, and Hesperos, the evening star. They are the children
of Astrœos and Eos, the starry heaven and the dawn, as also of
Kephalos and Eos (Theog: 381, Hyg: Poet: Astron: 11, 42). Preller,
quoted by Decharme, shows Phaeton identical with Phosphoros or
Lucifer (Griech: Mythol: 1. 365). And on the authority of Hesiod he
also makes Phaeton the son of the latter two divinities—Kephalos
and Eos.
Now Phaeton or Phosphoros, the “luminous morning orb,” is
carried away in his early youth by Aphrodite (Venus) who makes of
him the night guardian of her sanctuary (Theog: 987-991). He is the
“beautiful morning star” (Vide St. John’s Revelation XXII. 16) loved
for its radiant light by the Goddess of the Dawn, Aurora, who, while
gradually eclipsing the light of her beloved, thus seeming to carry off
the star, makes it reappear on the evening horizon where it watches
the gates of heaven. In early morning, Phosphoros “issuing from the
waters of the Ocean, raises in heaven his sacred head to announce
the approach of divine light.” (Iliad, XXIII. 226; Odyss: XIII. 93; Virg:
Æneid, VIII. 589; Mythol: de la Grèce Antique. 247). He holds a
torch in his hand and flies through space as he precedes the car of
Aurora. In the evening he becomes Hesperos, “the most splendid of
the stars that shine on the celestial vault” (Iliad, XXII. 317). He is
the father of the Hesperides, the guardians of the golden apples
together with the Dragon; the beautiful genius of the flowing golden
curls, sung and glorified in all the ancient epithalami (the bridal
songs of the early Christians as of the pagan Greeks); he, who at the
fall of the night, leads the nuptial cortège and delivers the bride into
the arms of the bridegroom. (Carmen Nuptiale. See Mythol: de la
Grèce Antique. Decharme.)
So far, there seems to be no possible rapprochement, no analogy
to be discovered between this poetical personification of a star, a
purely astronomical myth, and the Satanism of Christian theology.
True, the close connection between the planet as Hesperos, the
evening star, and the Greek Garden of Eden with its Dragon and the
golden apples may, with a certain stretch of imagination, suggest
some painful comparisons with the third chapter of Genesis. But this
is insufficient to justify the building of a theological wall of defence
against paganism made up of slander and misrepresentations.
But of all the Greek euhemerisations, Lucifer-Eosphoros is,
perhaps, the most complicated. The planet has become with the
Latins, Venus, or Aphrodite-Anadyomene, the foam-born Goddess,
the “Divine Mother,” and one with the Phœnician Astarte, or the
Jewish Astaroth. They were all called “The Morning Star,” and the
Virgins of the Sea, or Mar (whence Mary), the great Deep, titles now
given by the Roman Church to their Virgin Mary. They were all
connected with the moon and the crescent, with the Dragon and the
planet Venus, as the mother of Christ has been made connected with
all these attributes. If the Phœnician mariners carried, fixed on the
prow of their ships, the image of the goddess Astarte (or Aphrodite,
Venus Erycina) and looked upon the evening and the morning star as
their guiding star, “the eye of their Goddess mother,” so do the
Roman Catholic sailors the same to this day. They fix a Madonna on
the prows of their vessels, and the blessed Virgin Mary is called the
“Virgin of the Sea.” The accepted patroness of Christian sailors, their
star, “Stella Del Mar,” etc., she stands on the crescent moon. Like the
old pagan Goddesses, she is the “Queen of Heaven,” and the
“Morning Star” just as they were.
Whether this can explain anything, is left to the reader’s sagacity.
Meanwhile, Lucifer-Venus has nought to do with darkness, and
everything with light. When called Lucifer, it is the “light bringer,” the
first radiant beam which destroys the lethal darkness of night. When
named Venus, the planet-star becomes the symbol of dawn, the
chaste Aurora. Professor Max Müller rightly conjectures that
Aphrodite, born of the sea, is a personification of the Dawn of Day,
and the most lovely of all the sights in Nature (“Science of
Language”) for, before her naturalisation by the Greeks, Aphrodite
was Nature personified, the life and light of the Pagan world, as
proven in the beautiful invocation to Venus by Lucretius, quoted by
Decharme. She is divine Nature in her entirety, Aditi-Prakriti before
she becomes Lakshmi. She is that Nature before whose majestic and
fair face, “the winds fly away, the quieted sky pours torrents of light,
and the sea-waves smile,” (Lucretius). When referred to as the
Syrian goddess Astarte, the Astaroth of Hieropolis, the radiant planet
was personified as a majestic woman, holding in one outstretched
hand a torch, in the other, a crooked staff in the form of a cross.
(Vide Lucian’s De Dea Syriê, and Cicero’s De Nat: Deorum, 3 c.23).
Finally, the planet is represented astronomically, as a globe poised
above the cross—a symbol no devil would like to associate with—
while the planet Earth is a globe with a cross over it.
But then, these crosses are not the symbols of Christianity, but the
Egyptian crux ansata, the attribute of Isis (who is Venus, and
Aphrodite, Nature, also) ♀ or ♀ the planet; the fact that the Earth
has the crux ansata reversed, ♁ having a great occult significance
upon which there is no necessity of entering at present.
Now what says the Church and how does it explain the “dreadful
association.” The Church believes in the devil, of course, and could
not afford to lose him. “The Devil is the chief pillar of the Church”
confesses unblushingly an advocate[5] of the Ecclesia Militans. “All
the Alexandrian Gnostics speak to us of the fall of the Æons and
their Pleroma, and all attribute that fall to the desire to know,” writes
another volunteer in the same army, slandering the Gnostics as usual
and identifying the desire to know or occultism, magic, with
Satanism.[6] And then, forthwith, he quotes from Schlegel’s
Philosophie de l’Histoire to show that the seven rectors (planets) of
Pymander, “commissioned by God to contain the phenomenal world
in their seven circles, lost in love with their own beauty,[7] came to
admire themselves with such intensity that owing to this proud self-
adulation they finally fell.”
Perversity having thus found its way amongst the angels, the most
beautiful creature of God “revolted against its Maker.” That creature
is in theological fancy Venus-Lucifer, or rather the informing Spirit or
Regent of that planet. This teaching is based on the following
speculation. The three principal heroes of the great sidereal
catastrophe mentioned in Revelation are, according to the testimony
of the Church fathers—“the Verbum, Lucifer his usurper (see
editorial) and the grand Archangel who conquered him,” and whose
“palaces” (the “houses” astrology calls them) are in the Sun, Venus-
Lucifer and Mercury. This is quite evident, since the position of these
orbs in the Solar system correspond in their hierarchical order to that
of the “heroes” in Chapter xii of Revelation “their names and
destinies (?) being closely connected in the theological (exoteric)
system with these three great metaphysical names.” (De Mirville’s
Memoir to the Academy of France, on the rapping Spirits and the
Demons).
The outcome of this was, that theological legend made of Venus-
Lucifer the sphere and domain of the fallen Archangel, or Satan
before his apostacy. Called upon to reconcile this statement with that
other fact, that the metaphor of “the morning star,” is applied to both
Jesus, and his Virgin mother, and that the planet Venus-Lucifer is
included, moreover, among the “stars” of the seven planetary spirits
worshipped by the Roman Catholics[8] under new names, the
defenders of the Latin dogmas and beliefs answer as follows:—
“Lucifer, the jealous neighbour of the Sun (Christ) said to himself
in his great pride: ‘I will rise as high as he!’ He was thwarted in his
design by Mercury, though the brightness of the latter (who is St.
Michael) was as much lost in the blazing fires of the great Solar orb
as his own was, and though, like Lucifer, Mercury is only the
assessor, and the guard of honour to the Sun.”—(Ibid.)
Guards of “dishonour” now rather, if the teachings of theological
Christianity were true. But here comes in the cloven foot of the
Jesuit. The ardent defender of Roman Catholic Demonolatry and of
the worship of the seven planetary spirits, at the same time,
pretends great wonder at the coincidences between old Pagan and
Christian legends, between the fable about Mercury and Venus, and
the historical truths told of St. Michael—the “angel of the face,”—the
terrestrial double, or ferouer of Christ. He points them out saying:
“like Mercury, the archangel Michael, is the friend of the Sun, his
Mitra, perhaps, for Michael is a psychopompic genius, one who leads
the separated souls to their appointed abodes, and like Mitra, he is
the well-known adversary of the demons.” This is demonstrated by
the book of the Nabatheans recently discovered (by Chwolson), in
which the Zoroastrian Mitra is called the “grand enemy of the planet
Venus.”[9] (ibid p. 160.)
There is something in this. A candid confession, for once, of
perfect identity of celestial personages and of borrowing from every
pagan source. It is curious, if unblushing. While in the oldest
Mazdean allegories, Mitra conquers the planet Venus, in Christian
tradition Michael defeats Lucifer, and both receive, as war spoils, the
planet of the vanquished deity.
“Mitra,” says Dollinger, “possessed, in days of old, the star of
Mercury, placed between the sun and the moon, but he was given
the planet of the conquered, and ever since his victory he is
identified with Venus.” (“Judaisme and Paganisme,” Vol. II., p. 109.
French transl.)
“In the Christian tradition,” adds the learned Marquis, “St. Michael
is apportioned in Heaven the throne and the palace of the foe he has
vanquished. Moreover, like Mercury, during the palmy days of
paganism, which made sacred to this demon-god all the
promontories of the earth, the Archangel is the patron of the same in
our religion.” This means, if it does mean anything, that now, at any
rate, Lucifer-Venus is a sacred planet, and no synonym of Satan,
since St. Michael has become his legal heir?
The above remarks conclude with this cool reflection:
“It is evident that paganism has utilised beforehand, and most
marvellously, all the features and characteristics of the prince of the
face of the Lord (Michael) in applying them to that Mercury, to the
Egyptian Hermes Anubis, and the Hermes Christos of the Gnostics.
Each of these was represented as the first among the divine
councillors, and the god nearest to the sun, quis ut Deus.”
Which title, with all its attributes, became that of Michael. The
good Fathers, the Master Masons of the temple of Church
Christianity, knew indeed how to utilize pagan material for their new
dogmas.
The fact is, that it is sufficient to examine certain Egyptian
cartouches, pointed out by Rossellini (Egypte, Vol. I., p. 289), to find
Mercury (the double of Sirius in our solar system) as Sothis,
preceded by the words “sole” and “solis custode, sostegnon dei
dominanti, e forte grande dei vigilanti,” “watchman of the sun,
sustainer of dominions, and the strongest of all the vigilants.” All
these titles and attributes are now those of the Archangel Michael,
who has inherited them from the demons of paganism.
Moreover, travellers in Rome may testify to the wonderful presence
in the statue of Mitra, at the Vatican, of the best known Christian
symbols. Mystics boast of it. They find “in his lion’s head, and the
eagle’s wings, those of the courageous Seraph, the master of space
(Michael); in his caduceus, the spear, in the two serpents coiled
round the body, the struggle of the good and bad principles, and
especially in the two keys which the said Mitra holds, like St. Peter,
the keys with which this Seraph-patron of the latter opens and shuts
the gates of Heaven, astra cludit et recludit.” (Mem: p. 162.)
To sum up, the aforesaid shows that the theological romance of
Lucifer was built upon the various myths and allegories of the pagan
world, and that it is no revealed dogma, but simply one invented to
uphold superstition. Mercury being one of the Sun’s assessors, or the
cynocephali of the Egyptians and the watch-dogs of the Sun, literally,
the other was Eosphoros, the most brilliant of the planets, “qui mane
oriebaris,” the early rising, or the Greek ὀρθρινὸς. It was identical
with the Amoon-ra, the light-bearer of Egypt, and called by all
nations “the second born of light” (the first being Mercury), the
beginning of his (the Sun’s) ways of wisdom, the Archangel Michael
being also referred to as the principium viarum Domini.
Thus a purely astronomical personification, built upon an occult
meaning which no one has hitherto seemed to unriddle outside the
Eastern wisdom, has now become a dogma, part and parcel of
Christian revelation. A clumsy transference of characters is unequal
to the task of making thinking people accept in one and the same
trinitarian group, the “Word” or Jesus, God and Michael (with the
Virgin occasionally to complete it) on the one hand, and Mitra, Satan
and Apollo-Abbadon on the other: the whole at the whim and
pleasure of Roman Catholic Scholiasts. If Mercury and Venus
(Lucifer) are (astronomically in their revolution around the Sun) the
symbols of God the Father, the Son, and of their Vicar, Michael, the
“Dragon-Conqueror,” in Christian legend, why should they when
called Apollo-Abaddon, the “King of the Abyss,” Lucifer, Satan, or
Venus—become forthwith devils and demons? If we are told that the
“conqueror,” or “Mercury-Sun,” or again St. Michael of the Revelation,
was given the spoils of the conquered angel, namely, his planet, why
should opprobrium be any longer attached to a constellation so
purified? Lucifer is now the “Angel of the Face of the Lord,”[10]
because “that face is mirrored in it.” We think rather, because the
Sun is reflecting his beams in Mercury seven times more than it does
on our Earth, and twice more in Lucifer-Venus: the Christian symbol
proving again its astronomical origin. But whether from the
astronomical, mystical or symbological aspect, Lucifer is as good as
any other planet. To advance as a proof of its demoniacal character,
and identity with Satan, the configuration of Venus, which gives to
the crescent of this planet the appearance of a cut-off horn is rank
nonsense. But to connect this with the horns of “The Mystic Dragon”
in Revelation—“one of which was broken”[11]—as the two French
Demonologists, the Marquis de Mirville and the Chevalier des
Mousseaux, the champions of the Church militant, would have their
readers believe in the second half of our present century—is simply
an insult to the public.
Besides which, the Devil had no horns before the fourth century of
the Christian era. It is a purely Patristic invention arising from their
desire to connect the god Pan, and the pagan Fauns and Satyrs, with
their Satanic legend. The demons of Heathendom were as hornless
and as tailless as the Archangel Michael himself in the imaginations
of his worshippers. The “horns” were, in pagan symbolism, an
emblem of divine power and creation, and of fertility in nature.
Hence the ram’s horns of Ammon, of Bacchus, and of Moses on
ancient medals, and the cow’s horns of Isis and Diana, etc., etc., and
of the Lord God of the Prophets of Israel himself. For Habakkuk gives
the evidence that this symbolism was accepted by the “chosen
people” as much as by the Gentiles. In Chapter III. that prophet
speaks of the “Holy One from Mount Paran,” of the Lord God who
“comes from Teman, and whose brightness was as the light,” and
who had “horns coming out of his hand.”
When one reads, moreover, the Hebrew text of Isaiah, and finds
that no Lucifer is mentioned at all in Chapter XIV., v. 12, but simply
‫ֵהיֵלל‬, Hillel, “a bright star,” one can hardly refrain from wondering
that educated people should be still ignorant enough at the close of
our century to associate a radiant planet—or anything else in nature
for the matter of that—with the Devil![12]
H. P. B.
THE BLOSSOM AND THE FRUIT:
A TALE OF LOVE AND MAGIC.

by Mabel Collins,
Author of “The Prettiest Woman in Warsaw,” &c., &c., And Scribe of
“The Idyll of the White Lotus,” and “Through the Gates of Gold.”

Only—
One facet of the stone,
One ray of the star,
One petal of the flower of life,
But the one that stands outermost and faces us, who are men and
women.

This strange story has come to me from a far country and was
brought to me in a mysterious manner; I claim only to be the scribe
and the editor. In this capacity, however, it is I who am answerable
to the public and the critics. I therefore ask in advance, one favour
only of the reader; that he will accept (while reading this story) the
theory of the reincarnation of souls as a living fact.
M. C.

INTRODUCTION.

Containing two sad lives on earth,


And two sweet times of sleep in Heaven.

A LIFETIME.
Overhead the boughs of the trees intermingle, hiding the deep
blue sky and mellowing the fierce heat of the sun. The boughs are
so covered with white blossoms that it is like a canopy of clustered
snow-flakes, tinged here and there with a soft pink. It is a natural
orchard, a spot favoured by the wild apricot. And among the trees,
wandering from shine to shade, flitting to and fro, is a solitary figure.
It is that of a young woman, a savage, one of a wild and fierce tribe
dwelling in the fastnesses of an inaccessible virgin forest. She is dark
but beautiful. Her blue-black hair hangs far down over her naked
body; its masses shield the warm, quivering, nervous brown skin
from the direct rays of the sun. She wears neither clothing nor any
ornament. Her eyes are dark, fierce and tender: her mouth soft and
natural as the lips of an opening flower. She is absolutely perfect in
her simple savage beauty and in the natural majesty of her
womanhood, virgin in herself and virgin in the quality of her race,
which is untaught, undegraded. But in her sublimely natural face is
the dawn of a great tragedy. Her soul, her thought, is struggling to
awake. She has done a deed that seemed to her quite simple, quite
natural; yet now it is done a dim perplexity is rising within her
obscure mind. Wandering to and fro beneath the rich masses of
blossom-laden boughs, she for the first time endeavours to question
herself. Finding no answer within she goes again to look on that
which she has done.
A form lies motionless upon the ground within the thickest shade
of the rich fruit trees. A young man, one of her own tribe, beautiful
like herself, and with strength and vigour written in every line of his
form. But he is dead. He was her lover, and she found his love
sweet, yet with one wild treacherous movement of her strong supple
arm she had killed him. The blood flowed from his forehead where
the sharp stone had made the death wound. The life blood ebbed
away from his strong young form; a moment since his lips still
trembled, now they were still. Why had she in this moment of fierce
passion taken that beautiful life? She loved him as well as her
untaught heart knew how to love; but he, exulting in his greater
strength, tried to snatch her love before it was ripe. It was but a
blossom, like the white flowers overhead: he would have taken it
with strong hands as though it were a fruit ripe and ready. And then
in a sudden flame of wondrous new emotion the woman became
aware that the man was her enemy, that he desired to be her tyrant.
Until now she had thought him as herself, a thing to love as she
loved herself, with a blind unthinking trust. And she acted
passionately upon the guidance of this thing—feeling—which until
now she had never known. He, unaccustomed to any treachery or
anger, suspected no strange act from her, and thus, unsuspicious,
unwarned, he was at her mercy. And now he lay dead at her feet.
And still the fierce sun shone through the green leaves and silvern
blossoms and gleamed upon her black hair and tender brown skin.
She was beautiful as the morning when it rose over the tree tops of
that world-old forest. But there is a new wonder in her dark eyes; a
question that was not there until this strange and potent hour came
to her. What ages must pass over her dull spirit ere it can utter the
question; ere it can listen and hear the answer?
The savage woman, nameless, unknown save of her tribe, who
regard her as indifferently as any creature of the woods, has none to
help her or stay in its commencement the great roll of the wave of
energy she has started. Blindly she lives out her own emotions. She
is dissatisfied, uneasy, conscious of some error. When she leaves the
orchard of wild fruit trees and wanders back to the clearer part of
the forest beneath the great trees, where her tribe dwells, when she
returns among them her lips are dumb, her voice is silent. None ever
heard that he, the one she loved, had died by her hand, for she
knew not how to frame or tell this story. It was a mystery to her, this
thing which had happened. Yet it made her sad, and her great eyes
wore a dumb look of longing. But she was very beautiful and soon
another young and sturdy lover was always at her side. He did not
please her; there was not the glow in his eyes that had gladdened
her in those of the dead one whom she had loved. And yet she
shrunk not from him nor did she raise her arm in anger, but held it
fast at her side lest her passion should break loose unawares. For
she felt that she had brought a want, a despair upon herself by her
former deed; and now she determined that she would act differently.
Blindly she tried to learn the lesson that had come upon her. Blindly
she let herself be the agent of her own will. For now she became the
willing slave and serf of one whom she did not love, and whose
passion for her was full of tyranny. Yet she did not, she dared not,
resist this tyranny; not because she feared him, but because she
feared herself. She had the feeling that one might have who had
come in contact with a new and hitherto unknown natural force. She
feared lest resistance or independence should bring upon her a
greater wonder, a greater sadness and loss than that which she had
already brought upon herself.
And so she submitted to that which in her first youth would no
more have been endured by her than the bit by the wild horse.
The apricot blossom has fallen and fruit has followed it; the leaves
have fallen and the trees are bare. The sky is grey and wild above,
the ground dank and soft with fallen leaves below. The aspect of the
place is changed, but it is the same; the face and form of the woman
have changed; but she is the same. She is alone again in the wild
orchard, finding her way by instinct to the spot where her first lover
died. She has found it. What is there? Some white bones that lie
together; a skeleton. The woman’s eyes fasten and feed on the sight
and grow large and terrible. Horror at last is struck into her soul.
This is all that is left of her young love, who died by her hand—white
bones that lie in ghastly order! And the long hot days and sultry
nights of her life have been given to a tyrant who has reaped no
gladness and no satisfaction from her submission; for he has not
learned yet even the difference between woman and woman. All
alike are mere creatures like the wild things; creatures to hunt and
to conquer. Dumbly in her dark heart strange questionings arise. She
turns from this graveyard of her unquestioning time and goes back
to her slavery. Through the years of her life she waits and wonders,
looking blankly at the life around her. Will no answer come to her
soul?

AFTER SLEEP, AWAKENING.


Splendid was the veil that shielded her from that other soul, the
soul she knew and of which she showed her recognition by swift and
sudden love. But the veil separated them; a veil heavy with gold and
shining with stars of silver. And as she gazed upon these stars, with
delighted admiration of their brilliance, they grew larger and larger,
till at length they blended together, and the veil became one shining
sheen gorgeous with golden broideries. Then it became easier to see
through the veil, or rather it seemed easier to these lovers. For
before the veil had made the shape appear dim; now it appeared
glorious and ideally beautiful and strong. Then the woman put out
her hand, hoping to obtain the pressure of another hand through the
shining gossamer. And at the same instant he too put out his hand,
for in this moment their souls communicated, and they understood
each other. Their hands touched; the veil was broken; the moment
of joy was ended and again the struggle began.

A LIFETIME.
Sitting, singing, on the steps of an old palace, her feet paddling in
the water of a broad canal, was a child who was becoming more
than a child; a creature on the threshold of life, of awakening
sensation. A girl, with ruddy gold hair, and innocent blue eyes, that
had in their vivid depths the strange startled look of a wild creature.
She was as simple and isolated in her happiness as any animal of the
woods or hills—the sunshine, the sweet air with the faint savour of
salt in it, her own pure clear girlish voice, and the gay songs of the
people that she sang—these were pleasure enough and to spare for
her.
But the space of unconscious happiness or unhappiness which
heralds the real events of a life was already at an end. The great
wave which she had set in motion was increasing in volume
ceaselessly; how long before it shall reach the shore and break upon
that far off coast? None can know, save those whose eyesight is
more than man’s. None can tell; and she is ignorant, unknowing. But
though she knows nothing of it, she is within the sweep of the wave,
and is powerless to arrest it until her soul shall awake.
“My blossom, my beautiful wild flower,” said a voice close beside
her. A young boatman had brought his small vessel so gently to the
steps she had not noticed his approach. He leaned over his boat
towards her, and touched her bare white feet with his hand.
“Come away with me, Wild Blossom,” he said. “Leave that
wretched home you cling to. What is there to keep you there now
your mother is dead? Your father is like a savage, and makes you live
like a savage too. Come away with me, and we will live among
people who will love you and find you beautiful as I do. Will you
come? How often have I asked you, Wild Blossom, and you have
never answered. Will you answer now?”
“Yes,” said the girl, looking up with grave, serious eyes, that had
beneath their beauty a melancholy meaning, a sad question.
The man saw this strange look and interpreted it as clearly as he
could.
“Trust me,” he said, “I am not a savage like your father. When you
are my little wife I will care for you far more dearly than myself. You
will be my soul, my guide, my star. And I will shield you as my soul is
shielded within my body, follow you as my guide, look up to you as
to a star in the blue heavens. Surely you can trust my love, Wild
Blossom.”
He had not answered the doubt in her heart, for he had not
guessed what it was, nor could she have told him. For she had not
yet learned to know what it was, nor to know of it more than that it
troubled her. But she put it aside and silenced it now, for the
moment had come to do so. Not till she had learned her lesson much
more fully could the question ever be expressed even to her own
soul, and before this could be, the question must be silenced many
times.
“Yes,” she said, “I will come.”
She held out her hand to him as if to seal the compact. He
interpreted the gesture by his own desire, and taking her hand in his
drew her towards him. She yielded and stepped into the boat. And
then he quickly pushed away from the steps, and, dipping his oars in
the water, soon had gone far away down the canal. Blossom looking
earnestly back, watched the old palace disappear. In some of its old
rooms and on its sunny steps her child-life had been spent. Now she
knew that was at an end. She understood that all was changed
henceforth, though she could not guess into what she was going,
and she waited for her future with a strange confidence in the
companion she had accepted. This puzzled her dimly. Yet how should
she lack confidence, having known him long ago and thrown away
his love and his life beneath the wild apricot trees, having seen
afterwards the steadfastness of his love when her soul stood beside
his in soul life?
A long way they went in the little boat. They left the canals and
went out upon the open sea, and still the boatman rowed
unwearyingly, his eyes all the while upon the beautiful wild blossom
he had plucked and carried away with him to be his own, his dear
and adored possession. Far away along the coast lay a small village
of fishermen’s cots. It was to this that the young man guided his
boat, for it was here he dwelled.
At the door of his cot stood his old mother, a quaint old woman
with wrinkled, rosy face, wearing a rough fishwife’s dress and coarse
shawl; her brown hand shaded her eyes as she watched her son’s
boat approaching. Presently a smile came on her mouth. “He’s
gotten the blossom he’s talked of so often in his sleep. Will he be
happy now, the good lad?”
He was truly a good lad; for his mother knew him well, and the
more she knew him the deeper grew her love. She would do
anything for his happiness. And now she took to her arms the child,
the Blossom, and cherished her for his sake. Before many days had
passed the fishing village made a fête day for the wedding of its
strongest boatman. And the women’s eyes filled with tears when
they looked at the sad, tender, questioning face of the beautiful Wild
Blossom.
She had given her love without hesitation, in complete confidence.
She had given more; herself, her life, her very soul. The surrender
was now complete.
And now, when all seemed done and all accomplished, her
question began to be answered. Dimly she knew that, spite of the
husband at whose feet she bowed, spite of the babes she carried in
her arms till their tiny feet were strong enough to carry them down
over the shore to the marge of the blue waters, spite of the cottage
home she garnished and cleansed and loved so dearly, spite of all,
her heart was hungry and empty. What could it mean, that though
she had all she had none? Blossom was grown a woman now, and
there were some lines of care and of pain on her forehead. Yet, still,
she was beautiful and still she bore her child-name of Blossom; but
the beauty of her face grew sadder and more strange as the years
went by, the years that bring ease and satisfaction to the stagnant
soul. Wild Blossom’s soul was eager and anxious; she could not still
the mysterious voices of her heart, and these told her (though
perhaps she did not always understand their speech) that her
husband was not in reality her king; that he heard no sound from
that inner region in which she chiefly existed. For him contentment
existed in the outward life that he lived, in sheer physical pleasure, in
the excitement of hard work, and the dangers of the sea, in the
beauty of his wife, the mirth of his happy children. He asked no
more. But Wild Blossom’s eyes had the prophetic light in them. She
saw that all this peace must pass, this pleasure end; she recognised
that these things did not, could not, absolutely satisfy the spirit; her
soul seemed to tremble within her as she began to feel the first
dawn of the terrible answer to her sad questioning.

A deeper dream of rest;


A stronger waking.

Many a long year later, a solitary woman dwelled in that


fisherman’s cottage on the shore of the blue sea. She was old and
bowed with age and trouble. But still her eyes were brighter than
any girl’s in the village, and held in them the mysterious beauty of
the soul; still her hair, once golden, now grey, waved about her
forehead. The people loved her and were kind to her, for she was
always gentle and full of generous thought. But they never
understood her, for they were long ages behind her in her growth.
She was ready now for the great central test of personal existence;
the experience of life in civilization. When the old fishwife lay dead
within her cottage, and the people came to grieve beside her body,
they little guessed that she was going on to a great and glorious
future; a future full of daring and of danger. When her eyes closed in
death, her inner eyes opened on a sight that filled her with absolute
joy. She was in a garden of fruit trees, and the blossom of the trees
was at its full. When her eyes fell on this white maze of flowers and
drank in its beauty, she remembered the name she had borne on
earth and dimly understood its meaning. The blossoms hid from her
the sky and all else until a soft pressure on her hand drew her eyes
downwards; and then she saw beside her that one whom she had
loved through the ages, and who, side by side with her, was
experiencing the profound mystery, and learning the strange lesson
of incarnation in the world where sex is the first great teacher. And
with each phase of existence that they passed through, these two
forged stronger and stronger links that held them together and
compelled them again and again to meet, so that together they were
destined to pass through the vital hour; the hour when the life is
shaped for greater ends or for vain deeds.
Here within this sheltered place, where blossoms filled the air with
sweetness and beauty, it seemed to them, that they had attained to
the full of pleasure. They rested in perfect satisfaction, drinking deep
draughts of the joy of living. To them existence seemed a final and
splendid fact in itself; existence as they then had it. The moment in
which they lived was sufficient, they desired none other, nor any
other place, nor any other beauty, than those they had. None knows
and none can tell what time or age was passed in this deep
contentment and fulfilment of pleasure. At last Wild Blossom’s soul
woke from its sleep, satiated; the hunger returned to gnaw at her
heart; the longing to know reasserted itself. Holding tight the hand
she held in hers, she sprang from the soft couch on which she lay.
Then, for the first time, she noticed that the ground was so soft and
pleasant, because there, where she had lain, had drifted great heaps
of the fallen fruit blossoms. The ground was all white with them,
though some had begun to lose their delicate beauty, to curl and
wrinkle and turn dark. Then she looked overhead and saw that the
trees had, with the loss of the delicate petals, lost their first fairness,
the splendour of the spring. Now they were covered with small,
hard, green fruit, scarce formed, unbeautiful to the eye, hard to the
touch, acid to the taste. With a shudder of regret for the sweet
spring time that was gone, Wild Blossom hurried away from the
trees, still holding fast that other hand in hers. She was going to face
new, strange experiences, perhaps terrible dangers: her task was the
easier for that tried companionship, for the nearness of that other
who was climbing the same steep ladder of life.
END OF INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

In a masked ball there is an element of adventure that appeals to


the daring of both sexes, to the bright and witty spirits. Hilary
Estanol was just such an one as the hero of a bright revel should be.
A beautiful boy, with a lovely face, and eyes that had in them a deep
sadness. In repose his face was almost womanish in its softness; but
a chill brilliance was in his smile, a certain slight cynicism coloured all
his speech. Yet Hilary had no reason to be a cynic, and he was not
one who adopted anything from fashion or affectation. The spring of
this uncalled-for coldness and indifference lay in himself.
To-night he was the centre of attraction in Madame Estanol’s
drawing-rooms. This bal masqué was to celebrate his coming of age,
and Hilary had never looked so womanish as when he stood among
his friends receiving their congratulations and admiring their gifts. He
wore the dress of a troubadour, and it was one which became him
well, not only in its picturesqueness as a costume, but in the
requirements of the character. He had the faculty of the
improvisatore, his voice was rich and soft, his musical and poetic
gifts swift and versatile. Hilary was adored by his friends, but
disliked, indeed almost hated, by his one near relation, his mother.
She was standing near him now, talking to a group who had
gathered round her. She was one of the cleverest women of the day,
and, still beautiful and full of a charming pride, held a court of her
own. Her dislike for Hilary was founded on her estimate of his
character. To one of her intimate friends she had said, not long
before this night, “Hilary will disgrace his name and family before
there is one grey thread in his dark hair. He has the qualities that
bring despair and ensure remorse. God will surely forgive me that I
say this of my son; but I see it before me, an abyss into which he
will drag me with him; and I wait for it every day.”
A guest, just arrived, approached Madame Estanol with a smile,
and after greeting her affectionately, said, in a whisper, “I have
brought a friend with me. Welcome her in her character as a fortune-
teller. She is very witty, and will amuse us presently, if you like.”
She moved aside a little, and Madame Estanol saw standing
behind her a stooping figure, an old haggard crone, with palsied
head, and hand that trembled as it grasped her stick.
“Ah, Countess! it is impossible to recognise your friend under this
disguise,” said Madame Estanol. “Will you not tell me who she is?”
“I am pledged to say nothing but that she is a fortune-teller,” said
the Countess Bairoun. “Her name she herself will reveal only to one
person; and that person must be born under the star that favoured
her own birth.”
The fortune-teller turned her bent head towards Madame Estanol,
and fixed a pair of brilliant and fascinating eyes on hers. Immediately
Madame Estanol became aware of a strong charm that drew her
towards this mysterious person. She advanced and held out her
hand to assist the old woman in moving across the room.
“Come with me,” she said, “I should like to introduce you to my
son. He is the hero of this scene to-night, for the ball is held in
honour of his coming of age.”
They went together through the maskers that were now beginning
to throng the large drawing-rooms, and everyone turned to look at
the strange figure of the tottering old crone. Hilary Estanol was
leaning against the high carved oak mantel frame of the inner
drawing-room, surrounded by a laughing group of his intimate
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