The talismans. Cabalistic medal.

— Mr. M… had bought secondhand a medal that seemed to him remarkable for its singularity. It was the size of a six-pound crown; it had the appearance of silver, though somewhat grayish. On both faces are engraved, in bas-relief, a quantity of signs, among which one notices planets, interlaced circles, a triangle, unintelligible words, and initials in ordinary characters; then others in bizarre characters, recalling Arabic, all arranged in a cabalistic manner, after the kind used by magicians.

Mr. M… having questioned Miss J…, a somnambulist medium, concerning this medal, he was told that it was composed of seven metals, had belonged to Cazotte, and had the special power of attracting Spirits and facilitating evocations. Mr. de Caudemberg, author of a series of communications which, as a medium, he said he had received from the Virgin Mary, told him that it was a maleficent thing, intended to attract demons. Miss Guldenstubé, a medium, sister of Baron de Guldenstubé, author of a work on pneumatography, or direct writing, assured him that the medal possessed a magnetic virtue and could provoke somnambulism. Little satisfied with these contradictory answers, Mr. M… presented us with the medal, asking our personal opinion about it and, at the same time, requesting that we question a superior Spirit as to its real value, from the point of view of the influence it might have.

— Here is our reply:

Spirits are attracted or repelled by thought, and not by material objects, which exercise no power over them.

In all ages superior Spirits have condemned the use of cabalistic signs and forms, so that any Spirit who attributes any virtue whatever to them, or who claims to offer talismans as objects of magic, by that very fact reveals his inferiority, whether he acts in good faith and through ignorance, in consequence of old earthly prejudices with which he is still imbued, or whether, as a mocking Spirit, he consciously amuses himself with the credulity of others.

When they do not represent pure fantasy, cabalistic signs are symbols that recall superstitious beliefs in the virtue of certain things, such as numbers, the planets, and their correspondence with the metals, beliefs that were generated in times of ignorance and that rest on manifest errors, to which Science has done justice by revealing what exists regarding the supposed seven planets, the seven metals, etc.

The mystical and unintelligible form of these emblems had as its object their imposition upon the common people, always inclined to consider as marvelous everything they are incapable of understanding.

Whoever has rationally studied the nature of Spirits cannot admit that the influence of conventional forms, or of substances mixed in certain proportions, is exercised upon them; that would be to revive the practices of the witches' cauldron, of black cats, of black hens, and of other sorceries.

We cannot say the same of a magnetized object which, as is known, has the power to provoke somnambulism or certain nervous phenomena in the organism. In that case, however, the virtue of the object resides solely in the fluid with which it is momentarily impregnated and which is thus transmitted, by a mediate path, and not in its form, in its color, nor, above all, in the signs with which it may be overloaded.

A Spirit may say: “Trace such a sign, and at the sight of it I shall recognize that you are calling me, and I shall come”; in that case, however, the sign traced is merely the expression of thought; it is an evocation translated in a material manner. Now, Spirits, whatever their nature, do not need such artifices in order to communicate; 8 superior Spirits never employ them; inferior ones may do so in order to fascinate the imagination of credulous persons whom they wish to keep under dependence.

As a general rule: for superior Spirits the form is nothing; thought is everything. Any Spirit who attaches more importance to the form than to the substance is inferior and deserves no confidence, even when, now and then, he says some good things, for these good things are often a means of seduction.

Such was, in a general way, our thought regarding talismans, as a means of entering into relation with Spirits. Evidently it applies also to those which superstition employs as preservatives against illnesses or accidents.

— Nevertheless, for the edification of the owner of the medal, and for a better deepening of the question, in the session of July 17, 1858, we asked Saint Louis, who communicates with us willingly whenever it concerns our instruction, to give us his opinion on the matter.

Questioned about the value of the medal, this was his reply:

You do well not to admit that material objects can exercise any influence upon manifestations, whether to provoke them or to prevent them.

We have said often enough that manifestations are spontaneous and that, moreover, we never refuse to answer your call. Why do you think we are obliged to obey a thing fabricated by human beings?

Q. – For what purpose was this medal made?

Answer. – It was fabricated with the object of drawing the attention of those who would like to believe in it; but it can only have been made by magnetizers, with the intention of magnetizing and putting a sensitive to sleep. The signs are nothing more than fantasy.

Q. – They say it belonged to Cazotte; could we evoke him, in order to obtain some teachings on this subject?

Answer. – It is not necessary; occupy yourselves preferably with more serious things.” [see in the Review of January 1861: Jacques Cazotte.]