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Enter Diana Vaughan Bataille’s material was not always as new as it was when he described Brother Sandeman’s crocodile or the undergrounds of Gibraltar. To fill in thousands of pages, he had to make extensive use of ancient and modern demonological literature. He returned to the old writings about Loudun, Louviers, and other episodes, which had been collected by demonologists such as Mirville and Bizouard. He used the same authors for a prolonged attack on magnetism, hypnotism, and Spiritualism, where he denounced their demonic origins. It would be, however, wrong to forget the part of the Diable relative to possessions and obsessions, because this is where the central character came into play. It was a lucifériens, la Cabale fin-de-siècle, magie de la Rose-Croix, les possessions à l’état latent, les précurseurs de l’Ante-Christ. Récit d’un témoin, cit., vol. i, pp. 481–500. 23 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 618–619. 168 chapter 8 lady whose stories would continue intriguing French Catholics and anticlericals for the following five years. Her name was Diana Vaughan. “Half French and half American”, Diana was born in Paris. Her father was from Louisville, Kentucky, and her Protestant mother from the Cévennes. Her father, shortly after the foundation of Palladism, joined the new cult, in which he initiated his daughter in 1883. In 1884, when she turned twenty, Diana was already a “master” in a Palladist “triangle” (i.e. a lodge), but what followed was even more extraordinary. On February 28, 1884, while her Palladist “triangle” met “in a theurgic cabalistic session”, suddenly “the vault of the temple opened and released a genie of fire, who was none other than the devil Asmodeus”. The famous demon brought a trophy as a gift to his devotees in Louisville, “the tail of the lion of Saint Mark”, which he cut off with a sword in a battle between angelic and demonic spirits. Bataille was not gullible, and observed judiciously that “there is no lion of Saint Mark, as this is a purely symbolic lion, an iconographic attribute of the Evangelist”. Thus, “Asmodeus fooled the triangle, bringing a tail of a random lion to those who believe in the lies, in most cases stupid, of the infernal spirits”. The Luciferians “demonstrated a proud dose of superstitious credulity”:24 not so Bataille, who knew better. The French doctor credited his readers with being less credulous than the Palladists, and busy with “more serious things”. They knew that “the tail of the lion kept in Louisville had nothing supernatural in itself. However, a Devil could easily have elected it as its home, and thus it could produce infernal manifestations, and these effectively occurred frequently, at the command of Sister Diana Vaughan, the protégé of Asmodeus”. Notwithstanding her diabolical relations, Diana Vaughan was introduced from the start as a pleasant character, just as Sophie Walder was hateful. The two prima donnas of Palladism were thus destined to clash. This occurred in Paris in 1885, in a triangle presided by a man called Bordone, to whom Diana was sent to “receive the perfect Palladian light, which meant the degree of Master Knight Templar”. On the order of Pike in person, in recognition of the Palladist merits of her father, Diana was dispensed of a preliminary trial of an obscene nature, the “Rite of Pastos”. Sophie Walder was also present in Paris, and she had with her a consecrated holy wafer. She asked that Diana at least submit to the second trial, which was necessary to become a “Master Knight Templar”: “to spit on the divine Eucharist”. Diana, however, although she claimed to be “happy to dedicate herself to Lucifer”, refused the profanation. The session was suspended and a committee gathered the following day to judge the rebel. 24 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 711–712. SATAN THE FREEMASON 169 Diana, Bataille reported, seriously risked being expelled from Palladism, but luckily, the famous “supposed tail of the lion of Saint Mark” was also brought to Paris. While the committee was about to vote the measures against Sister Vaughan, the tail “leaped from the chest that contained it and, although light as a feather, vigorously stroked all those who had spoken against Diana”. After such a manifestation, Diana not only was not expelled but was immediately proclaimed a “Master Knight Templar”, without any further need for the sacrilege. More extraordinary prodigies followed. The tip of the lion tail “transformed in a small Devil’s head”, which opened its mouth and declared: “I, Asmodeus, commander of fourteen legions of fire spirits, declare that I protect and always will guard my beloved Diana against everyone and everything (…). Diana, I will obey you in everything, but on one explicit condition: you must never marry. Besides, should you decide not to conform to this wish of mine, the only law that I impose on you, I will strangle whomever will dare to become your spouse”. This was not all: some time later, the adversaries of Diana, while she was going back to America, gathered under the presidency of Bordone and with the participation of the perfidious Sophie, in order to plot against her again. But at a certain point Bordone “let out a horrifying scream and his head suddenly turned around, with his face now on the side of his back”. Sophie Walder summoned her “familiar spirit” to understand the cause of the mishap, and the spirit replied that it was the doing of Asmodeus, who came as an avenger of his fiancé Diana. Only the latter would be able to put the head of Bordone back in its place. “Since she was a good girl, who did not hold grudges”, when she was informed of the event, Diana set out and twenty days later arrived in Paris, where she turned the head of the misfortunate Palladist back to normal. Bordone was so “disgusted” by the episode that he abandoned the cult forever. Finally, notwithstanding the further protests of Sophie, Diana was formally consecrated as a “Master Knight Templar” on September 15, 1885, again on Pike’s personal orders. She returned to Louisville, where she reigned “on local Palladists until 1891, when she moved to New York, always accompanied by the famous ‘tail of the lion of Saint Mark’”.25 The successive career of Diana Vaughan happened outside of the Diable, which we now want to follow in its systematic extensive exposition of all kinds of Satanism. The second volume dedicated many hundreds of pages to palmistry, tarot reading, astrology, interpretation of dreams, apparitions of spirits, 25 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 714–721. 170 chapter 8 magical mirrors, spells, filters, talismans, amulets: all clearly exposed as works of the Devil. Then politics and culture were discussed: the French Revolution, anarchy, socialism, communism; the rehabilitation of the Devil in French literature; Martinism, the esoteric Christianity of priests such as Roca, the foundation of a Gnostic Church. Bataille, again, denounced all as direct activities of the Satanists, sometimes personally organized by Pike. From Charleston, the American Freemason maneuvered hundreds of different organizations in order to substitute the cult of Lucifer to that of the Christian God, Adonai, whom he considered, in a gnostic manner, an evil god, and the Luciferian Liber Apadno, from which Bataille offered precious quotes, to the Bible. The physician however admitted that there were also “non-organized Satanists”, among which he mentioned Bois, and “dissident Luciferians” such as Lady Caithness. He insisted, however, that as long as Pike was alive, the great majority of the world Satanists could not subtract themselves from his direction. It is impossible to analyze all the hundreds of episodes and characters in the Diable. In the second volume, Bataille quoted liberally from Léo Taxil and Domenico Margiotta, whom I will discuss shortly. Here, I will limit myself to referring to some curious objects, rituals and episodes, which concern the main plot, the one relative to Pike, Diana Vaughan, and Sophie Walder. Pike was described as a collector of peculiar objects, among which the “Arcula Mystica” was not the least prodigious. This was a “diabolical telephone”, constituted by a double horn similar to that of normal telephones of the 19th century, situated in a small chest. Inside the chest, there were also a silver toad and seven small statues, which corresponded to Charleston, Rome, Berlin, Washington, Montevideo, Naples and Calcutta. When Pike wanted, for example, to call Lemmi in Italy, he placed two fingers on the statues that represented Charleston and Rome respectively. As an effect of this act, “in the same instant in Rome, where Lemmi had his own Arcula Mystica, he heard a strong hiss. Lemmi opened his small chest and saw the statue of Ignis [i.e. the statue that represented Charleston] raised, while small inoffensive flames escaped from the throat of the toad. He thus knew that the Sovereign Pontiff of Charleston wanted to talk to him. He lifted the statue of Ratio [which represented Rome] from the chest” and began to talk. Everything, naturally, worked thanks to the arts of Lucifer, who clearly in the era of telephones did not intend to be overcome by mere human technology. But what if, “when there was a call, Lemmi was not in his office”? Lucifer did not yet invent the cell phone, but found a solution nonetheless. Lemmi “would feel the sensation of seven warm breaths blown on his face; he would know exactly what it means. If, for example, he would need an hour to be available, he should say in a low voice, ‘I will only be ready in an hour’. And the toad in SATAN THE FREEMASON 171 the chest in Charleston [from which the call came] would speak in a loud and understandable voice to Pike: ‘In an hour! In an hour! In an hour!’”.26 Among Pike’s marvels, there was also “the famous talisman-bracelet” that, according to Bataille, was still kept in Charleston after the death of the Luciferian Pontiff. At one stage Pike, who often had to travel away from Charleston, was sorry not to be able to see the weekly apparition of Lucifer there. The Prince of Darkness, complacent, provided him with a bracelet, which allowed him to “make Lucifer appear in any location where Pike was”. It was sufficient for him to kneel, kiss the earth, and call Lucifer three times. The first time he used the bracelet, Pike, in reality, had nothing to ask Lucifer in particular: he only wanted to test the jewel. Lucifer, however, told him: “I can’t have come here for nothing. Ask me something”. Pike then asked him to be transported “to the most beautiful and bright among the stars, Sirius”. “In Satan’s arms” the American Freemason flew “1,373,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun”, to Sirius and back.27 Armed with this protection, Pike could fear no opposition. The schism within Palladism would explode only after his death, and would give Bataille the opportunity to produce a different kind of literature. The Diable was, rather, the story of the kingdom of Pike, whose only problems came from the rivalry between Sophie Walder and Diana Vaughan. Sophie, while the issues of the Diable continued to be published, got into all kinds of mischief. She created a talisman with a consecrated holy wafer surrounded by sharp points, as she wanted to hold it in her hands and desecrate the holy bread every time she wished.28 She planned to αssαssιnαtҽ Pope Leo xiii, as she was “furiously enraged” by the anti-Masonic encyclical Humanum genus.29 She imposed her authority on the Freemasons of all of Europe, crossing walls and making bouquets of snakes appear thanks to the protection of the Devil Bitru, no less powerful than his colleague Asmodeus who protected Diana Vaughan.30 The same Bitru was the fiancé of Sophie, just as Asmodeus was of Diana. On October 18, 1883, Bataille reported, a Palladist session was held in Rome. Among the participants was the mysterious Lydia Nemo, an Italian initiate who had received from the Devil the gift of being able to appear in the lodges with the splendid appearance she had when she was thirteen. In Rome, Bitru promised to marry Sophie on December 25, 1895, and that their daughter 26 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 391–395. 27 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 330–340. 28 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 349–350. 29 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 816. 30 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 830–850. 172 chapter 8 would be born on September 29, 1896. When the time would come, Sophie’s daughter would in turn marry another demon, Décarabia, giving birth to a girl who would be the mother of the Antichrist. The reader thus had from Bataille a chronology that permitted the prediction of the advent of the Antichrist in the second half of the 20th century, and indicated in Sophie no less that the greatgrandmother of the Antichrist. The coming of the Antichrist, Bataille added, was solemnly announced in a séance attended by the Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi (1819–1901) together with well-known Italian Freemasons, including Lemmi and Ettore Ferrari.31 In the same year, 1893, the Mormon father of Sophie, Phileas Walder, had died. The great-grandmother of the Antichrist did not appear to be too worried, since the corpse of her father had risen eleven times from the grave and even took part in a Palladist banquet, where he ate and drank with great satisfaction.32 The only problems came to Sophie, as usual, from her arch-rival Diana Vaughan, now in a state of “permanent possession”, while previously she was only in “obsession”, by her demon lover Asmodeus. In the final issues of the Diable, it became clear to the readers that the matter went beyond a contest of Luciferian prodigies. When Pike died in 1891, Lemmi was elected as the new Sovereign Pontiff of Palladism, and began to make it slip from a cult of Lucifer, the Devil as the “good God”, to a cult of Satan, the Devil as prince of Evil. Diana, who wanted to keep worshipping the Devil as Lucifer and not as Satan, was about to create a revolt and a schism, in the course of which she would come into conflict again with Sophie. The Diable ended promising a follow up, and referring to a new complementary magazine, signed by the same Doctor Bataille, which would follow month after month the events of Palladism and reveal further sensational episodes.