In ancient times the ability to bring life to inanimate objects was the sole province of the gods. But man has been ever curious about this power and records exist of alchemists and sorcerers trying to determine just what it is that brings life to seemingly inanimate objects. This pseudo-scientific dabbling into the properties of life has given rise to a great many myths about the power of creation. Most of these stories have been confirmed to be nothing more than a hoax or wistful thinking but some of them have never been satisfactorily explained. Did our ancestors uncover the secret to bringing forth life? And if so, did these rites disappear with them or have they been horded away and learned anew by another generation?

Some of the earliest reports of man trying to uncover the secret of life dates back to the times of alchemy when science was still struggling to convert what they were discovering into a system of natural laws. Some alchemists believed in the theory of "Preformationisn" which stated that every organism destined to be born was encased inside each other in smaller and smaller layers and just awaited the proper time for their birth. One of the most famous of alchemists from this line of thought was Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, who worked under the pseudonym Paracelus. Paracelus believed so strongly in Preformationisn that he even cooked up a recipe, which was first published in a book entitled "De Natura Rerum" in 1572.

"Let the essence of a man putrefy by itself in a sealed cucurbite with the highest putrefaction of venter equinus for forty days, or until it begins at last to live, move, and be agitated, which can easily be seen. At this time it will be in some degree like a human being, but, nevertheless, transparent and without a body. If now, after this, it be every day nourished and fed cautiously with the arcanum of human blood, and kept for forty weeks in the perpetual and equal heat of venter equinus, it becomes thencefold a true living infant, having all the members of a child that is born from a woman, but much smaller. This we call a homunculus; and it should be afterwards educated with the greatest care and zeal, until it grows up and starts to display intelligence".

Paracelsus stated that the little man he created through this recipe looked exactly like a human although only 12 inches high. Although raised in the correct manner, the homunculus grew agitated by Paracelsus's actions and attentions and ran away, never to be seen again.

Equally interesting is the deeds and actions recorded by those that followed the Jewish mysticism called Cabala. Cabala came to fruition in the 13th century but is based on an even older Jewish theosophy, which can trace its roots back to the 1st century A.D. The Cabala that was studied in the Middle Ages was concerned with uncovering the secret truths of the world and how creation related to these hidden forces of the earth. In this respect it was closely akin to the thoughts and ideas of alchemy although the two were separated by the schism of science versus religion. Indeed the thought of creating life out of nothing also exists within the study of Cabala and the myth of the "Golem," a creature created out of mud and given life, is based on studies from this philosophy. The most famous story of a golem concerns a rabbi in 16th century Prague who creates one to act as a protector. This story mirrors the unhappy ending of Paracelus's homunculus; as the days pass the golem grows stronger and finally becomes insane. The rabbi is forced to end its life by erasing the word of power that he had written on his forehead.

But these secrets of bringing life out of nothing seem to have slowly vanished under the tide of new information about what life is and how it becomes. By the 1800's the "science" of alchemy had been regulated to a few mad scientist types toiling away in obscurity. It was furthered hampered by Mary Shelly's book "Frankenstein" which sent the notion into the realm of fiction. No serious scientist would touch the ideas brought forth by the early masters of these arts in the 15th and 16th centuries. Forced by the light of the new laws of science, this radical art of creation fell out of favor and by most accounts no new work was done. But did this strange art still find followers in more remote corners of the world?

Recent events have lead me to believe that this study did not die out entirely but instead took an unusual twist. After an encounter with a Shamanic Priestess who claimed to be able to bring a semblance of life out of nothing, I began to look closer at the roots of her beliefs. I now think that she is a direct link to the alchemists of the past and that the power revealed by both the alchemists and the Cabala masters still resides in her.

The priestess was born on the Netherlands Antilles Island of Curacao, which lies just off the northern coast of Venezuela. The Spanish first settled the island in 1527 but the Dutch ousted them from the land a few years later. By the middle of the next century the island had become an important part of New World activities and a busy port for the Dutch West Indies Company. It was also at this time that a Jewish Cabalist named Morenci Rosenbaum came to the island. Ostensibly part of a group that was intent on setting up the first synagogue on Curacao, Rosenbaum became more interested in the ideas of a Dutch scientist named Leonardo Ven Leving. Ven Leving was using the cheap labor and land that the island provided to help prove some of his more esoteric theories about flight. Although successful in his attempts to launch a hot air balloon in 1621, Ven Leving spent some of his time dabbling in alchemy and it's studies on creating life. A cargo manifest from a Dutch ship that arrived in 1622 reveals that Ven Leving had ordered a vast amount of obscure herbs and alchemist potions that were listed by Paracelus as necessary in creating and maintaining homunculus life. Local land deeds of that year also show that Rosenbaum had bought a small villa next to Ven Leving's household. That seems unusual since the Jewish community had provided it's members with a self-contained community on the other side of the island and this may be proof that both Van Leving and Rosenbaum were operating together in some capacity. In any case, both men lost their life in an attempted invasion of the islands by a band of Spanish bandits in the year 1629.

These findings are nothing new to historians but become more interesting in light of the discussion I had with the Priestess. She claims that both Ven Leving and Rosenbaum are looked upon as the founders of a Curacao theosophy called "Mestre Do Fantoche" which still exists as a hidden belief on the island today. This quasi-religion is followed by a handful of the island natives and their chief claim is that they have the ability to create "automatons." These wax or mud based effigies of humanity contain no robotic parts nor run off any power source but instead are brought to life by a combination of alchemy and mysticism. The priestess claimed to have recently brought to life one of these automatons in Miami Florida at the request of a customer who had been visited upon by a curse. The automaton was made of wax and sculpted to look like the person in an attempt to divert the curse upon it and free the man from its effects. The Priestess said that the curse acted as a power source unto itself and made the effigy come to life under it's own power. Because of this the automaton was turned to evil and had to be destroyed (I can attest to that last part, personally.)

If the Priestess's back story is to be believed then the secret arts of alchemy and the Cabala still exist to this day. Even though forced to go underground by the knowledge of current scientific study and theory these "old ways" are still as potent as they were back in the 15th and 16th centuries. Current science has no place for these beliefs but to those that still accept them as the truth they may still hold power and substance. Perhaps this is the basic underlying theory of magic; that rituals have to be believed in to work. If that is the case then the Priestess I spoke with is certainly a powerful one since her beliefs in the theosophy of "Mestre Do Fantoche" are unshakable. This mobius loop of a belief system is self empowering and is sure to keep itself alive as much as any of the laws of science that are held to be true today. If so we may not have seen the last of golems or other creatures that are brought to life by man.

sources

Interview with Anonymous Priestess, Miami Florida, January 10th, 2001

"A Brief History of the West Indies Trading Companies" Harold Vergin, Masthead Publications, 1998

"Cabala" Richard S Sarason, Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia

"The Time of Curacao" Walter Barthleon, Caribbean Publishing, 1999