La Iniciación · Año III, Nº 24 · April 1944

1cient Rome on one hand, and the modern countryfolk on the other, have verified countless times — that is, the announcement of coming tempests or earthquakes by the varying flight of birds and insects and the behaviour of many animals.

2In effect, before the tempest the hens roll in the dust and bristle their feathers, the swallows fly almost level with the ground, etc.

3LOCAL VARIATIONS.

4— We have spoken of the variations of terrestrial magnetism produced in time.

5Let us now say something of those produced in space — that is, in different zones of the terrestrial crust.

6The constitution of the subsoil and the presence of subterranean water currents make the magnetic field vary locally, which manifests itself in oscillations of the compass needle — as is shown, for example, by the apparatus destined for the production of ionised air. [Sic: the original prints "del ionizado".]

7This apparatus, in effect, gives a different yield according to the point where it is placed.

8Moreover the local or regional magnetic field is modified also by the atmospheric electric field and the ionisation of the air, whose stimulating action on the intensity of physiological life is also beginning to be studied, especially in Russia.

9We say finally that persons who live in regions where subterranean water currents exist in the subsoil feel the influence of the electromagnetic variations existing in those regions, and many of them are revealed by the dowsers. [Sic: the original prints "radomantes".]

10We recall, for example, that Henry Mager communicated a few years ago that some horses in a stable beneath whose floor a water current passed gave evident signs of agitation, which disappeared when they were moved away from that place.

11So that terrestrial magnetism is under the influence of the cosmic irradiations, and especially of the Sun and the Moon.

12And, like the minerals, the vegetables and the animals, man too is influenced by these cosmic irradiations — which justifies and explains all that the initiates of all times have said on the necessity, especially in what refers to the practice of magical operations, of the orientation both of persons and of objects.

13All the modern men of science imbued with materialism naturally had to laugh, because of their ignorance, at all those practices of a magical nature which the initiates performed, and which were founded in great part upon the knowledge of those cosmic influences and upon the necessity of orientation.

14But when scientific knowledge on this most important matter is sufficient, then those who have been, through ignorance, described as charlatans — when not as tricksters and swindlers — will be appreciated at their just value.

15For a long time it was believed that man was not sensitive to magnets or to the variations of terrestrial magnetism, but today we already know that these influences exist, and it is of enormous importance to study those influences on physiological and psychological variations.

16In the past all the ancient initiates knew them, but it is only in the XVIth century that several physicians — among them the great Italian savant Girolamo Cardano — used magnets in medicine.

17In the XIXth century many experiments were made by Drs.

18Luys and Papus and Drs.

19Bourru and Burot, without succeeding, as was to be foreseen, in awakening the interest of the savants in this matter.

20Only for almost 25 years has the problem · 23

Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.