Universal Balm
An elixir composed by the alchemists, which formed a sovereign remedy for every malady, and would even bring the dead to life.
Universities (Occult): In many works on the occult sciences allusions are made to schools and universities for the instruction of those who were drawn to them. Thus we are told that Salamanca abounded in such schools; that Jechiel, a Jewish Rabbi of mediæval France, kept such a seminary; and there is reason to believe that in all ages such institutions were by no means uncommon. Balzac alludes to one of them in a well-known novel The Secret of Ruggier, which he places at the time of Catherine de Medici. He says, "At this epoch the occult sciences were cultivated with an ardour which put to shame the incredulous spirit of our century.... The universal protection accorded to these sciences by the ruling sovereigns of the times was quite remarkable." He goes on to say that at the commencement of the sixteenth century Ruggier was the member of a secret university for the study of the occult sciences, where astrologers, alchemists, and others, studied several branches of hidden knowledge; but he gives no details as to its locality, or as to the exact nature of its curriculum. There is no doubt that during the Middle Ages many extramural lecturers taught alchemy and kindred subjects at the Urim and Thummim horsemen, and to prevent them wearying. It moves itself when any danger threatens its possessor.
Typtology: The science of communicating with the spirits by means of rapping, various codes being arranged for the purpose. Thus the sitters may read the alphabet aloud, or slowly pass a pencil down a printed alphabet, the rappings indicating the correct letters which, on being joined together, form a message or an answer to some question propounded. One rap may be made to mean "yes," two "no," and so on. (See Rappings.) great universities. Thus Paracelsus lectured on alchemy at the University of Basel, and he was preceded and followed there and elsewhere by many illustrious professors of that and other occult arts. M. Figuier in his work Alchemy and the Alchemists (See Alchemy), alludes to a school in Paris frequented by alchemists, which he himself attended in the middle of the last century. The school-an ordinary chemical laboratory through the day-became in the evening a centre of the most elaborate alchemical study, where Figuier met many alchemical students, visionary and practical, with one of whom he had a prolonged argument, which we have outlined at considerable length in the article Alchemy." Many professors of the occult sciences in early and later times drew around them considerable bands of students and assistants and formed distinct schools for the practice of magic and alchemy, principally the latter. The College of Augurs in Rome and the Calmecac of Ancient Mexico are distinct examples of institutions for the study of at least one branch of occult science, and in this connection the House of Wisdom of the Ismaelite sect at Cairo may be mentioned. It is likely that in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, institutions of the kind flourished more or less in secret. Mme. Blavatsky insisted to the last that a great "school" of illuminated occult adepts flourished in Tibet; but as nobody except herself and her immediate friends ever saw them, or had any dealings with them; and as all proof is against the existence of such a semi-divine brotherhood, her statements must be taken as being somewhat open to question. There is, however, no reason to doubt that bodies of men who study the higher occultism do exist in various Asiatic centres, whatever the nature of their powers, supernormal or otherwise, may be. Vague rumours reach students of occultism every now and again of schools or colleges on the continent of Europe, the purpose of which is to train aspirants in the occult arts; but as definite information is seldom forthcoming regarding these, they can only be merely alluded to here. The "School for the Discovery of the Lost Secrets of Antiquity," which flourishes at Lotus-land, California, was founded by Catherine Tingley late in the nineteenth century, and is under theosophical régime. Numerous small bodies for the study of occultism exist in every town of considerable size in Europe and America; but these cannot be dignified even by the name of "schools," as they are for the most part private affairs, the occultism of which is of an extremely amateurish and innocent character.