Theological Malice Is the Root Cause of Satanic Magic

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Black versus White Magic Series · 19 pages

The argument of the title is a simple one and worth stating plainly: that satanic magic is not a category found in nature but one created by theology. The theosophist, Blavatsky writes, believes in neither divine nor satanic miracles. There is for him neither saint nor sorcerer, neither prophet nor soothsayer — only adepts, proficients in the production of phenomena, to be judged by their words and deeds. It is bigotry and intolerance, not observation, that separates two harmonious parts of one field into godly and ungodly works.

The second half is a piece of historical detective work on Simon Magus, who is the test case. The Apocryphal Gospels, she argues, contain more historically true material than the New Testament, being crude tradition where the official account is elaborately made-up legend; and read against them Simon appears not as a sorcerer but as a Kabbalist and mystic attempting to found a religion on the Secret Doctrine without divulging its mysteries, who rejected the individuality of his personal spirit and recognised the divine ray in his Higher Ego. The conclusion is the provocative one: that by Simon Magus we must understand the Apostle Paul, calumniated and opposed by Peter both openly and in secret.

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