Kansas Physician Confirms Howard Report

[TradeName]

For comparison, here's the same passage in a translation published in 1886, which seems to be the one referred to at the end of the PMG article.

The Mysteries of Magic: A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Lévi (London: George Redway, 1886), link
By Éliphas Lévi, Arthur Edward Waite

Pages 160-162

It is requisite afterwards:—-Firstly, to profane the ceremonies of the religion one belongs to and trample its holiest symbols under foot; secondly, to make a bloody sacrifice; thirdly, to procure the magic fork. This is a branch of a single beam of hazel or almond, which must be cut at a single stroke with the new knife used in the sacrifice; the rod must terminate in a fork which must be bound with iron or with steel made from the same knife that it has been cut with. A fifteen days fast must be observed, taking only one meal without salt after sundown; this repast must be made off black bread and blood seasoned with unsalted spices, or off black beans, and milky, narcotic herbs; every five days, after sunset, one must get drunk on wine in which five heads of black poppies and five ounces of bruised hemp have been steeped, the whole being contained in a cloth woven by a prostitute, or, strictly, the first cloth at hand may be used, if woven by a woman. The evocation may be performed either during the night between Monday and Tuesday or that between Friday and Saturday. A solitary and prohibited place must be chosen, such as a cemetery haunted by evil spirits, an avoided ruin in the country, the vault of an abandoned convent, the spot where an assassination has been perpetrated, a druidic altar, or a former temple of idols. A black robe without seams or sleeves must be provided, a leaden cap blazoned with the signs of the Moon, Venus, and Saturn, two candles of human fat set in crescent-shaped candlesticks of black wood, a magic sword with a black handle, the magic fork, a copper vase holding the blood of the victim, a censer containing incense, camphor, aloes, ambergris, and storax, mixed and moistened with the blood of a goat, a mole, and a bat; four nails torn from the coffin of an executed criminal, the head of a black cat which has been fed on human flesh for five days, a bat drowned in blood, the horns of a goat cum quo puella concubuerit, and the skull of a parricide, are also indispensable. All these horrible and with difficulty collected objects being obtained, they must be arranged as follows:— A perfect circle must be traced with the sword, an opening or way out being, however, left; in the circle a triangle must be inscribed, and the pantacle thus traced by the sword must be dyed with blood ; then, at one of the angles of the triangle the three-footed chafing-dish must be placed, which should also have been mentioned among the indispensable objects; at the opposite base of the triangle three small circles must be made for the operator and his assistants, and behind the circle of the former, not with the blood of the victim but with the operator's own blood, there must be traced the sign of the labarum or the monogram of Constantine. The operator or his acolytes should have naked feet and covered heads. The skin of the immolated victim must have also been brought, and, cut up into strips, must be placed within the circle forming an inner circle fastened at four corners with the four nails already spoken of. Near these nails, but without the circle, must be placed the cat's head, the human, or rather the inhuman skull, the goat's horns, and the bat; they must be aspersed with a branch of birch dipped in the victim's blood, then a fire of cypress and alder wood must be lighted, and the two magic candles placed on the right and left of the operator circled with vervain wreaths

----end

A link to the passage in an 1861 French edition.


Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Volume 1 (Paris: Germer Balliere, 1861), link
by Éliphas Lévi

Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Volume 2 (Paris: Germer Balliere, 1861), link
by Éliphas Lévi

Pages 227-228

[TradeName]

This seems to be the passage referred to in Stephenson's PMG article, but unless "a linen cloth which was spun by a prostitute" is some sort of coded reference, I don't see a reference to the key ingredient which ties this rite to the Whitechapel murders. Stephenson seems to have been working from memory when he wrote his article since he got some of the details wrong. Frankly, after someone had done all of these things, I would think Satan would be embarrassed to be seen with him.

The Word (New York), Volume 24, December, 1916, Pages 183-185

It is essential afterward:

Firstly, to profane the ceremonies of the worship in which we believe, and to tread under foot the most sacred symbols.

Secondly, to make a bloody sacrifice.

Thirdly, to procure the magic fork. This is a branch of a single shoot of the hazel-nut tree or almond tree, which must be severed by one cut of a knife which shall have served at the sacrifice. This small wand should terminate in a fork. It is necessary to plate this wooden fork with an iron or steel fork made from the very blade of the knife which severed it.

It is necessary to fast fifteen days, making but one repast after sunset, without salt. This repast should be of black bread and blood, seasoned with spices, without salt, or black beans, and with milky and narcotic herbs. Also, every five days to be intoxicated after the sun goes down, on wine, in which for five hours five heads of poppies and five ounces of triturated hemp-seed are infused. The whole contained in a linen cloth which was spun by a prostitute. (Strictly speaking, the first cloth at hand will answer, if it was spun by a woman.)

The evocations can take place either on the night of Monday or Tuesday, or on that of Wednesday or Saturday.

It is necessary to choose a solitary place with a bad reputation, such as a cemetery haunted by evil spirits, a ruin that is feared in the country, the cellar of an abandoned convent, the place where murder has been committed, a Druid altar, or an ancient temple for idols.

It is necessary to provide oneself with a black robe, without seams or sleeves; with a leaden cup made under the signs of Venus and Saturn; with two candles of human fat fixed in two candlesticks of black wood cut in the form of a crescent; with two crowns of vervain; with a magic sword having a black handle; with the magic fork; with a copper vase containing the blood of the victim; with a shuttle containing perfumes which shall be of incense, camphor, aloes, ambergris, storax, incorporated and kneaded with the blood of a he-goat, of a mule and of a bat. Four nails must also be torn out of the coffin of a culprit that was executed; the head of a black cat fed on human flesh for five days; a bat drowned in blood; the horns of a goat cum quo puella concubuerit; and the skull of a parricide. All of these horrible objects being brought together, which are difficult to collect, this is the way they are disposed.

A perfect circle is to be traced with the sword, reserving, however, a break or outlet. A triangle is to be inscribed in the circle; the pentacle traced by the sword to be colored with blood; then at one of the angles of the triangle the chafing dish on three legs is to be placed, which also should have been counted among the indispensable articles. At the opposite base of the triangle, three little circles are to be made for the operator and his two assistants, and behind the operator's circle is to be traced the sign of the Labarum or the monogram of Constantine, not with the blood of the victim, but with that of the operator himself. The operator, or his acolytes, should have their feet bare and their heads covered.

The skin of the immolated victim will also be brought. This skin cut in strips, is to be placed in the circle, and will form an interior circle to be fixed at the corners with four nails of the executed person. Near the four nails, outside the circle, should be placed the cat's head, the human (or rather inhuman) skull; the goat's horns, and the bats. They should be sprinkled with a sprig of birch dipped in the blood of the victim; next a fire of alder and cypress woods is to be lighted; the two magic candles shall be placed to the right and left of the operator in the crowns of vervain. (See the figure at the commencement of this chapter.)



----end

[TradeName]

Here are some quotes from Doubleday's translation of Eliphas Levi on the subject of Black Magic.

The Word (New York), Volume 18, November, 1913, Page 121

The instrument of spells is nothing else than the great magic agent itself, which, under the influence of a wicked volition, then becomes really and positively the devil.

Witchcraft, properly so called, that is, the ceremonial operation with a view to cast a spell, only acts upon the operator and serves to fix and to confirm his will by uniting a definite purpose with perseverance and effort—-two conditions which render the willing effective. The more difficult or horrible the operation, the more effective it is, because it acts more on the imagination and confirms the effort in direct proportion to the resistance.

This explains the strangeness and even the atrocity of the operations of black magic among the ancients and in the middle ages; the devil's masses; the sacraments administered to reptiles; the effusions of blood; human sacrifices and other monstrosities which are the very essence or reality of the goétic art of necromancy. Such practices have drawn in all ages upon sorcerers the just repression of the laws. Black magic is really only a combination of sacrileges and of graduated murders in order to pervert forever a human will, and realize in a living man the hideous phantom of the devil. Hence it is, properly speaking, the religion of the devil, the worship of darkness, the hatred of good carried on to its highest paroxysm; it is the incarnation of death and the permanent creation of hell.

----end

The Word (New York), Volume 23, July, 1916, Page 256

In the Middle Ages necromancers violated the tombs, composed philters, and ointments with the fat and blood of corpses. They mixed with it aconite, belladonna and the poisonous toadstool. Then they boiled these frightful mixtures, and skimmed them over fires composed of human bones and of crucifixes stolen from the churches. They mingled in them the powders of dried toads, and the ashes of consecrated wafers. Next they rubbed their temples, hands and breasts, with the infernal ointment, tracing the diabolic pentacle, evoking the dead under gibbets or in abandoned graveyards. Their howlings were heard from afar, and belated travelers believed that they saw legions of phantoms come out of the earth. The very trees, in their eyes, took shapes which caused fear. They saw fiery eyes glow in the bushes, and the frogs of the marshes seemed to repeat, in hoarse tones, the mysterious words of the Sabbath. It was the magnetism of hallucination, and the contagion of madness.

----end

[TradeName]

Robert D’Onston Stephenson wrote a pseudonymous article for the Pall Mall Gazette arguing that JtR was an occultist influenced by Eliphas Levi.

Pall Mall Gazette, 1 December 1888, link

[...]

Now, in one of the books by the great modern occultist who wrote under the nom de plume of 'Eliphaz Levy', 'Le Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,' we find the most elaborate directions for working magical spells of all kinds. The second volume has a chapter on Necromancy, or black magic, which the author justly denounces as a profanation. Black magic employs the agencies of evil spirits and demons, instead of the beneficent spirits directed by the adepts of la haute magie. At the same time he gives the clearest and fullest details of the necessary steps for evocation by this means, and it is in the list of substances prescribed as absolutely necessary to success that we find the link which joins modern French necromancy with the quest of the East-end murderer. These substances are in themselves horrible, and difficult to procure. They can only be obtained by means of the most appalling crimes, of which murder and mutilation of the dead are the least heinous. Among them are strips of the skin of a suicide, nails from a murderer's gallows, candles made from human fat, the head of a black cat which has been fed forty days on human flesh, the horns of a goat which has been made the instrument of an infamous capital crime, and a preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot. This last point is insisted upon as essential and it was this extraordinary fact that first drew my attention to the possible connection of the murderer with the black art.

Further, in the practice of evocation the sacrifice of human victims was a necessary part of the process, and the profanation of the cross and other emblems usually considered sacred was also enjoined. In this connection it will be well to remember one most extraordinary and unparalleled circumstance in the commission of the Whitechapel murders, and a thing which could not by any possibility have been brought about fortuitously. Leaving out the last murder, committed indoors, which was most probably not committed by the fiend of whom we speak, we find that the sites of the murders, six in number, form a perfect cross. That is to say, a line ruled from No. 3 to No. 6, on a map having the murder sites marked and numbered, passes exactly through Nos. 1 and 2, while the cross arms are accurately formed by a line from No. 4 to 5. The seventh, or Dorset-street murder, does not fall within either of these lines, and there is nothing to connect it with the others except the mutilations. But the mutilations in this latter case were evidently not made by any one having the practical knowledge of the knife and the position of the respective organs which was exhibited in the other six cases, and also in the mutilated trunk found in the new police-buildings, which was probably the first of the series of murders, and was committed somewhere on the lines of the cross, the body being removed at the time. Did the murderer, then, designing to offer the mystic number of seven human sacrifices in the form of a cross - a form which he intended to profane - deliberately pick out beforehand on a map the places in which he would offer them to his infernal deity of murder? If not, surely these six coincidences (?) are the most marvellous event of our time.

To those persons to whom this theory may seem somewhat farfetched, we would merely remark that the French book referred to was only published a few years ago; that thousands of copies were sold; that societies have been formed for the study and practice of its teachings and philosophy; and, finally, that within the last twelve months an English edition has been issued. In all things history repeats itself, and the superstitions of yesterday become the creeds of today.

----end

[TradeName]

The San Francisco Bohemian Club is something of an elite institution. See here.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

That's a great find TN. the mention of a Bohemian club caught my eye too....wouldn't it be rich if we found that this "hot potato" was actually someone important, someone with knife skills and anatomy knowledge, and frequented lower income places...like Bohemian clubs.

Maybe this fella?

https://forum.casebook.org/forum/ripper-discussions/motive-method-and-madness/728451-the-indents-in-the-gsg?p=729320#post729320

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

What about all the stuff that Tradename has posted after this story?

Thank God it's not just me. I admire the effort, but I'm not even pretending to have the faintest idea of what it means. I'll get back to my colouring in now...

[Scott Nelson]

What about all the stuff that Tradename has posted after this story?

[Michael W Richards]

Here's a link to page 14 of The San Francisco Call for April 24, 1895, which has the "Dr. Howard" story.

A quote from a story in the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette for May 2, 1895, from this site:

San Francisco. April 24.
William Greer, manager of the Thames and Mersey Marine Insurance Company, playwright and club man, was seen to-day by a representative of the Associated Press in regard to the dispatch telegraphed from San Francisco, connecting a prominent London physician, whose name was not given, with the "Jack the Ripper" murders several years ago. Mr. Harrison stated that the dispatch was entirely correct in very particular so far as the matter reaching him through Dr. Howard was concerned. He stated that Dr. Howard is a well-known London physician who passed through San Francisco on a tour of the world several months ago and that while he was here he (Harrison) met Howard at the Bohemian club and the latter told him the remarkable story and vouched for its authenticity.

That's a great find TN. the mention of a Bohemian club caught my eye too....wouldn't it be rich if we found that this "hot potato" was actually someone important, someone with knife skills and anatomy knowledge, and frequented lower income places...like Bohemian clubs.

[TradeName]

The Word (New York), Volume 24, December, 1916, Page 181

The Baphomet of the Templars whose name should be spelled Kabalistically reversed, is composed of three abbrevations. Tem ohp Ab, Templi, omnium hominum pacis abbas. The father of the temple, universal peace among men. Baphomet was, according to some, a monstrous head; according to others a demon in the shape of a he-goat. A sculptured box has been lately disinterred in the ruins of an ancient commandery of the temple, and antiquaries have observed there a Baphometic figure conformable, as to the attributes, to our He-Goat of Mendes, and to Khunrath’s Androgyne. This figure is bearded, with an entire female body. She holds in one hand the Sun, and in the other the Moon, attached by chains. It is a beautiful symbolism—-this manly head which attributes to thought alone the initiative and creative principle. The head here represents the mind, and the body of the woman, matter. The heavenly bodies chained to the human form and directed by this nature whose intelligence is the head, offer also the most beautiful allegory. The entire sign has been found none the less obscene and diabolic by the learned men who have examined it. Need one be astonished after that to see accredited in our day all the supersition of the Middle Ages? One thing surprises me; it is that believing in the devil and his imps, the fagots are not again lighted. M. Veuillot would like it, and with him it is a reasonable thing to do so. We must always honor men who have the courage of their opinions.

----end

A recent translation of Levi by John Micahel Greer and Mark Anthony Mikituk says that "Levi was fooled here by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall whose Mysterium Baphometis Revelatum (The Mystery of Baphomet Revealed), published in 1818, includes this among many other fake 'discoveries' redefining the Baphomet of the Templars as a hermaphroditic idol." (TarcherPerigee, 2017, Page 324)

Consulting a scan of von Hammer's work, I couldn't find an image that exactly matched Levi's description, but some with similarities.

Mysterium Baphometis Revelatum (Vindobonae (Vienna): 1818), link
by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall

image line


image link



Archive.org has an English translation of this work here.

[TradeName]

The Word (New York), Volume 18, February, 1914, Page 316

[...] At the head of a French translation of a book of the Sieur de Nuisement on the philosophic salt, we see the spirit of the earth standing on a cube which runs over fiery tongues. It has a caduceus for a phallus, and the sun and moon on the breast at the right and left. It is bearded and crowned, and holds a sceptre in its hand. It is the Azoth of the sages upon its pedestal of salt and sulphur. Sometimes the symbolic head of the he-goat of Mendes is given to this image. It is the Baphomet[ ]of the Templars; the he-goat of the Witches' Sabbath, and the Logos of the Gnostics. Strange images which have been turned into bugbears for the vulgar, after having served for the meditations of sages, innocent hieroglyphs of thought and faith which have been a pretext for the furies of persecution. How many men are unfortunate in their ignorance, but how much they would despise themselves if they ever should happen to know it!

----end

Oeuvre de la Physique Naturelle, Contenant les Trois Principes de Philosophes (Theodore Maire, 1640), link
By Clovis Hesteau (sieur de Nuysement)

image link

[TradeName]

The Word (New York), Volume 17, August, 1913, Page 308

Upon one of the arms of the androgyne of Henry Kunrath we read this word, COAGULA and upon the other SOLVE.¹

1. Unite firmly together; dissolve

----end

Google books has a scan of the Kunrath volume, but the scan of the plate in question is poor.

Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae Solius Verae, Christiano-Kabalisticum (1653), link
by Heinrich Khunrath

link to plate

The University of Wisconsin has a scan of the book with a much better scan of the plate.

[TradeName]

A look at what Levi said about his image of Baphomet and the sources upon which he drew.

The Word (New York), Volume 19, May, 1914, Page 122



The Word (New York), Volume 24, October, 1916, Pages 60-61

The goat represented on our frontispiece bears upon his forehead the sign of the Pentagram, point upward, which suffices to make of it a symbol of light. With the two hands it forms the sign of occultism, and shows the white moon of Chesed above, and the black moon of Geburah beneath. This sign expresses the perfect accord of mercy with justice. One of its arms is feminine, the other masculine, like the androgyne of Khunrath, whose attributes we should unite to those of our goat because the symbol is one and the same. The torch of intelligence which shines between its horns is the magic light of the universal equilibrium; it is also the representation of the soul exalted above matter, although itself holding to matter as the flame is connected with the torch. The hideous head of the animal expresses the horror of sin, material agent of which being alone responsible, ought alone and forever to bear the penalty; for the soul is from its nature impassible, and only arrives at suffering by materializing itself. The caduceus which takes the place of the generative organ, represents eternal life; the belly covered with scales is water; the circle above is the atmosphre [sic]; the feathers which come afterward are emblems of flying; next the human nature is represented by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.

Behold the darkness of the infernal sanctuary dissipated! Behold the sphinx of the terrors of the Middle Ages divined and precipitated from its throne: “Quomodo cecidisti Lucifer!” The terrible Baphomet exists no longer. Like all monstrous idols, enigmas of ancient science and its dreams, it becomes an innocent and even pious hieroglyphic. How did man worship the beast, since he exercised over it a sovereign empire? Let us say for the honor of mankind, that it has never worshipped dogs and goats more than lambs and doves. As to a hieroglyphic why not a he-goat, as well as lamb? In the sacred stones of the Gnostic Christians of the sect of Basilides, we see representations of Christ under the diverse figures of the animals of the Kabala-—sometimes a bull, sometimes a lion, sometimes a serpent with the head of a lion or a bull. Everywhere it bears at the same time the attributes of light, like our goat whose sign of the pentagram prohibits it from being taken as one of the fabulous images of Satan.

----end

[TradeName]

The Word (New York), Volume 25, July, 1917, Pages 249-256

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XVII
The Writing of the Stars (cont)

Chapter XVIII
Philters and Magnetism


August, 1917, Pages 311-320

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XVIII
Philters and Magnetism (cont)

Chapter XIX
The Magister of the Sun

Chapter XX
Thaumaturgy


September, 1917, Pages 379-384

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XX
Thaumaturgy (cont)


With this volume The Word ceased publication before completing the publication of Doubleday's translation.

[TradeName]

The Word (New York), Volume 24, October, 1916, Pages 57-64

The Ritual of Higher Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XV
The Sabbath of the Sorcerers


November, 1916, Pages 126-128

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XV
The Sabbath of the Sorcerers (cont)


December, 1916, Pages 180-192

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XV
The Sabbath of the Sorcerers (cont)

Chapter XVI
Spells and Charms


January, 1917, Pages 250-256

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XVI
Spells and Charms (cont)


February, 1917, Pages 315-320

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XVII
The Writing of the Stars


March, 1917, Pages 379-384

The Ritual of High Magic
by Eliphas Levi
Translated from the French by Major-General Abner Doubleday
Annotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D.

Chapter XVII
The Writing of the Stars (cont)