9. P a s c h a l B e v e r l y R a n d o l p h
We have now surveyed the H. B. of L.'s origins as a semi-secret
order for teaching practical occultism, and described the roles of
Theon, Davidson, and Burgoyne. For all the vaunted participa
tion of celestial hierarchies, the more immediate source of almost
all the Order's teachings is more plebeian, and demonstrates the
truth of Burgoyne's claim to be merely a compiler. Rene Guenon
suggested th at one should look for the an teced en ts of the
H. B. of L. in a "Brotherhood of Eulis," which he rightly says was
founded about 1870 by Paschal Beverly R andolph/6 Even a
glance at the practical instruction embodied in the Laws of
Magic M irrors" and "Mysteries of Eros" reveals the enormous
extent to which the Order mined the works of this unique and
underrated character.77
Randolph (1825-1875) was an African American man who
had a reputation by the early 1850s as a typical "trance speaker"
who would act as the unconscious medium for various reform-
minded "spirits." This began to change in 1855 when he traveled
to Europe and mixed in the Mesmerist circles in France around
Baron Jules Du Potet de Sennevoy and Louis Alphonse Cahag-
net. Unlike most American spiritualists, the French Mesmerists
were well versed in the Western magical and occult traditions.
Also, and most especially, they used in their spirit evocations
magic mirrors or crystals, and drugs, especially hashish. All this
was a revelation to Randolph.
In 1857, and again in 1861, Randolph was in Europe visiting
the same circles, but also venturing to the Near East (Egypt, Pal
estine, and Turkey as far as the borders of Persia), where he came
to know a different sort of magic among the w andering der
vishes and "fak irs" whom he met on his travels. Returning to
America after his first trip to the East, he publicly denounced
spiritualism, and especially the role he had hitherto accepted:
that of a passive and unconscious medium for the "spirits." In its
place he now taught a complete system of practice and theory, of
which these are the main points: A) Myriads of divine "m onads"
are continuously being spun out from the vortex of the Divine
Central Sun. The goal of every human monad is to become first
individuated, then a divine individual, and then to progress per
petually as a god through infinite universes. The inhabitants of
these universes are not lim ited (as the spiritualists thought) to
the "spirits" of the human dead, but include vast hierarchies of
"e le m e n ta ls" and of the p rog ressed dead and of the never
embodied, with all of whom m en on earth can be taught to com
municate. B) There is no reincarnation in the sense of rebirth on
this earth, w ith the exception of abortions, m ental defectives,
and those who die before the "sou l" really comes into being. C)
The goal of divinization can be attained by m any people here
and now, through clairvoyance achieved by means of the magic
mirror, drugs, and sexual magic.
W hatever Rene G uenon m ay have urged to the contrary,
both Randolph and the H. B. of L. were firm believers in commu
nication with the dead. But Modern Spiritualism, in Randolph's
mature view, was up a blind alley in trying indiscriminately to
contact what it took to be the spirits of the dead, and in encour
aging passive and unconscious m edium ship. W hat should be
contacted was adepts and beings in the celestial hierarchies, and
wrhat should be cultivated was conscious clairvoyance and the
will.
Originally Randolph characterized his teachings as "Rosi-
crucian," though by that he did not mean exclusively the Rosi-
crucians known to history. These were merely a small part of the
real Order, which Randolph called by various Oriental names
("Gate of Light," etc.). This extended on both sides of the grave,
among men and among the earthly and celestial hierarchies, and
contact with it was on the clairvoyant level. Randolph spoke var
iously of his contact w ith Ram us/Thothm or, a dead Egyptian
pharaoh, and with Pul ali Beg, a Persian who, it seemed, was still
alive. The earthly extensions of the Order were in the Near East,
though there appears to have been a center in Paris.
Randolph places great emphasis, both personally and as an
occultist, on a state he calls variously "Blending" or "A trilism "
a state in which a person, while still conscious, is totally taken
over by another being, hum an or never hum an, and indoctri
nated or used for some purpose. This was the very essence of the
42 PART I: AN ORDER OF PRACTICAL OCCULTISM
78 ODL, 1,236-254.
79 See Britten, 50-51.
44 PART I: AN ORDER OF PRACTICAL OCCULTISM
80 Both editions of The Divine Pymander have been reprinted in facsimile: Randolph's (in
the reissue of 1889} by Health Research, Mokelumne Hill, Ca., 1972; Fryar's by Wizard's
Bookshelf, Minneapolis, 1973. The H. B. of L.'s advertisement [B.3.b] has been eliminated
from the latter.
PASCHAL BEVERLY RANDOLPH 43
dolph's teachings, did not so adm ire the teacher. By his own
account, Randolph was an extremely unhappy man, frequently
out of control and sometimes on the brink of insanity; he died by
his own hand. The H. B. of L. cautioned its neophytes that he was
only "h alf-in itiated " and that he had fallen into black magic.
Gradually "Eulis," with its strong echoes of Randolph, gave way
to "E ro s" or "E ro sa," as the O rder distanced itself from Ran
dolph while continuing to use his work. This, rather than simple
plagiarism, accounts for the suppression of his name in the doc
uments adapted from his writings.
Randolph's distinction lies primarily in his practical instruc
tions on personal development: mirror practice, drugs, and sex
ual magic. His methods, learned (as he variously claimed) in the
N ear East or from personages of the celestial hierarchies, or
made up from his own creativity, provided the essential element
missing from the occultist koine of the period: the practical key to
an experiential realization by the individual neophyte of the
m ysteries expounded endlessly in the w ordy occult com pila
tions and theories of the age. W ith the exception of the French
and English Mesmerists and the related mirror-magicians of the
mid-centurywhose practical experiences were in any case sec
ondhand at best, mediated through the visions and reports of the
medium or seer Randolph provided practical instruction for a
person seeking to realize directly the truths of occultism. His
works outlined a variety of means of achieving personal experi
ence: m irror m agic to develop clairvoyance in the individual
using the mirror; the three principles of practical magic (Volan-
tia, D ecretism , and Posism ); sexual m agic; "B len d in g" as the
means of communication with the celestial hierarchies; the Sleep
of Sialam, and the use of mind-altering drugs.
These practical m eans w ere taken over w holesale by the
H. B. of L., and it is these that constituted its attraction for the
occultists of the time especially for Theosophists "w ho may
have been disappointed in their expectations of Sublime W is
dom being freely dispensed by Hindoo Mahatmas."