CHAPTER VIII.

APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.

One of the ablest followers of Pythagoras was Apollonius of Tyana, who was so great a wonder-worker that the Emperor Antonius Caracalla worshipped him as divine, while Alexander Severus and other emperors showered upon him great honors, and regarded him with high esteem. During a terrible plague at Epathuses, it is recorded that he caused it to cease immediately on his arrival there, having been summoned thither by men in high authority, who firmly believed in his miraculous healing power. Concerning his many works of healing, we are told that sometimes he was present with his patients and even laid his hands upon them, but in many instances he performed marvelous cures at a distance; he is indeed reported to have done as many mighty works as any of the great prophets or apostles of whom Holy Writ makes any mention. Like all other truly learned and holy men, Apollonius made a clear distinction between righteous magic and unholy sorcery. By true magic he understood that mysterious power which acts through sacred ceremonies performed with good intent by honorable persons, while under the term sorcery he included all acts which, however performed, proceeded from malicious motives and were worked with the intention of inflicting injury. Here we have one more illustrious tribute paid to a noble universal idea, one that, though it has long been eclipsed, is now shining forth again in all its native brilliancy, inspiring men and women in this day in many lands to perform many benevolent works similar to those which wrought so much benefit in by-gone time in ancient countries. The leading doctrines of Apollonius were so similar to those of many other great teachers that his personal identity does not always stand out very clearly; he has been many times confounded with other illustrious spiritual teachers and mighty wonder-workers, but there seems good historical evidence that he was a very real and influential personage, and one moreover who wrought great blessings in his own day and handed on a far-reaching benign influence to posterity. Speaking for himself, his biographers make him declare that his mode of life was very unlike that of the bulk of the people among whom he mingled; he took very little food, but gained much nourishment from an extremely simple diet; he seems to have been entirely free from ostentation, and simply went about doing good to the fullest extent of his opportunity. As a seer he takes exceptionally high rank, for he evidently possessed ability to foresee and foretell many important events as well as to heal many diseases and quell many riots by the exercise of a power entirely super-physical. Apollonius lived at a time when faith in the gods and goddesses of the classic world had greatly waned, and when the priests and priestesses of once glorious temples had largely declined from their former high estate, and it was his earnest mission to seek not only to restore the ancient glories but to enkindle a new flame and fervor in his own generation surpassing in brightness and purity that of departed days. Like all other great teachers who undertook to enlighten the world, he was withstood and persecuted by many classes of opponents, but he always showed himself able to so thoroughly defend his doctrine and practices whenever they were attacked that he made hosts of friends from the ranks of the opposition, and surrounded himself with companies of faithful disciples who were loyal and devoted even unto death. This great teacher laid no stress on sacrifices, and paid little heed to any ritual observances; a pure life and a philanthropic temper he extolled far above all ceremonies, for moral excellencies he regarded as the only great essentials for spiritual attainment. Magical powers he looked upon as belonging by right to those who lived on a higher plane than the majority, and like all really spiritually-minded teachers he expected higher human faculties to unfold normally when the right life was lived conducive to their development, without recourse to any artificial means for stimulating them. Philostratus, in a minute description of the life of Apollonius, says that he visited the temple of Aesculapius at Aegea, the Oracles of Anphiaraus, Delphi, and Dodona; the Magi of Nineveh and Babylon; the Brahmins of India; he also visited Egypt, Ethiopia, Crete, Sicily and Rome. In his later years he resided for some time at Smyrna, Ephesus and Tyana; the date of his death is given as 96 C. E., at the age of about 100 years. Wherever he went he urged the people to a life of the strictest morality accompanied by works of piety and prayer. He is said to have cured every kind of malady, including the most dangerous and fatal diseases, and many of his predictions were accurately fulfilled. We can gather much from these recorded incidents that will throw bright light upon the early years of the Christian era, for at that period it seems impossible to doubt that a mighty spiritual wave was sweeping over this planet and manifesting its potency through the agency of a great number of contemporary wonder-workers, many of whom were unmistakably men and women of the noblest character devoted to the highest imaginable ideals. It would be a vain and useless task to attempt to disentangle the exact deeds of this one man from those of all the rest, and it is surely only necessary to consider the works themselves if our aim is to prove the reality of inspiration and its continuous flow through all the ages. Apollonius was one bright light shining with far more than ordinary brilliance, but he was not a solitary figure, nor did he claim to be an only master. We greatly need in our own day to take a far more intelligent and comprehensive view of so-called magic and all pertaining to it than can ever be taken by any who wish to prove too much for one teacher and equally too little for all the rest. We might easily cite examples from an enormous array of testimony to similar works accomplished in all parts of the world and under many widely different auspices, but enough has been said to put our readers in the way of considering the claims of ancient and modern mystery and revelation, to the end that they may search the records for themselves with renewed interest and vigor, and we trust always with the sole desire of discovering truth and weighing evidence impartially. The study of history is beneficial only in so far as it spurs us on to seek to duplicate, if not transcend, the good deeds that have been wrought by those who have blazed the path of human progress before our day. Century after century and millennium after millennium the same great problems are presented to humanity for solution, for similar needs arise continually for the exercise of that marvelous power to teach and heal which is the one indisputable credential of the true prophet and the pure white magician. It will be indeed well for us all if, considering the great interest now everywhere displayed in psychic marvels, we learn to tread the consecrated way which leads to that true adepthood which, in its last analysis, is the supreme triumph of the spirit over all that would fetter its radiant activity in individual and in communal life. There is much deep significance in the following extraordinary testimony to what Apollonius conceived to be a mode of life and course of action conducive to the most beneficial results. He says of himself: “I wear a robe of linen which as well as being conducive to cleanliness also produces more truthful dreams. Between God and man exists a bond of relationship, and by this is man in some measure a participator in the Divine nature. All are convinced that the powers of the mind and the soul are derived from God, and that those are the nearest to God who are most highly endowed with them. The Indian wisdom, to which the Egyptian is related, says that God created all, and the cause of Creation was the goodness of God. If God is therefore good, we may consider a good man as participating in the spirit of God. To what this leads he shall know who is acquainted with the philosophy of Eclectics.” (Quoted from Ennemoser’s “History of Magic.”)

This philosophy is a combination of the purely Platonic and Pythagorean schools, which are indeed essentially at one. As the dialogues of Plato are so easily accessible and so well known to scholars, we need not proceed to dilate upon the leading tenets of that glorious Grecian school. Suffice it to say that a sense of harmony with all creation is the one great aim and object of all true philosophic doctrine. The road to this attainment is through following out in all cases the innermost dictates of one’s own highest consciousness.