D'Onston's magical substances

[David Knott]

In the post script to D'Onston's letter to the police he says: -

I can tell you, from a French book, a use made of the organ in question - 'd'une femme prostituee'

In his Pall Mall Gazette article he tells us that the book is Eliphas Levi's Le Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie and that it lists the following substances as absolutely necessary to the necromancer: -

Strips of the skin of a suicide
Nails from a murderers gallows
Candles made from human fat
The head of a black cat fed on human flesh for 40 days
The horns of a goat which has been made the instrument of an infamous capital crime
A preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot

Has any researcher ever found the reference to the last named? I have been looking through Levi's book and can't see it anywhere, although I can see the others.

Thanks
David

[Mike Covell]

Hi David,

The last named book?

Or the last named article on the list?

The book has a wiki entry here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_et_Rituel_de_la_Haute_Magie

I believe,
"A preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot"

I believe the certain portion is the womans uterus which is the part (other than the heart) which has become unpure.

Hope this helps.

The collected writings of RDS

http://kobek.com/crowleyripper.pdf

I have all of RDS work on disk, and a lot of it on paper, I also have a large range of occult books which I have collected over the years in my role as a paranormal investigator.

[David Knott]

Hi Mike,

I meant the last named article on the list, (the one of interest to Ripperologists!)

All of the others are listed in Levi's book, but I can't find any mention of a preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot (uterus or otherwise)

[Mike Covell]

Hi Mike,

I meant the last named article on the list, (the one of interest to Ripperologists!)

All of the others are listed in Levi's book, but I can't find any mention of a preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot (uterus or otherwise)

Knowing Robert D'Onston Stephenson and his excellent talent for stories, it would not suprise me in the least that he added that himself.

He was great at really bending the truth, and creating stories with slight truth's held within.

One only has to look at the articles he submitted to Boarderlands.

[Simon Wood]

Hi David,

Second Witch in the Scottish Play—

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

Put any store in D'Onston's 'magical' BS and you're doomed to believe anything.

Regards,

Simon

[Howard Brown]

Dave:

I've looked, as well as has Nina, into whether or not the actual organs from prostitutes D'onston suggests are used in rituals are mentioned as well...a couple of years ago...and we came up empty, independent of each other.

I even took the time and stomached the tome by Levi from 1886, The Magical Ritual of The Sanctum Regnum, and there's nothing there.

My opinion on this inability of anyone....and by anyone, you know who I mean ....to find this alleged element of a "black magic ritual" is :

A. Dogme Et Rituel came out in 1888.

B. Stephenson read the book during that same year.

C. Stephenson read Diosy's or "Observers" article(s) in the papers and while entrenched in the London Hospital added a little "oomph" within his interpretation of the events transpiring outside in the December 1st, Pall Mall Gazette front page story...and since it was already lurid ( prostitutes being eviscerated openly ) he added this non-sourced, probably fictional, extra ingredient to the proverbial mix with the Dogme fresh in his mind...or maybe another of Levi's dreadful works.

How