Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

A great majority of “spiritualists”, “occultists”, “Toshos- ophists”, are pitiable examples of repeated losses from this cause. The emotional type of religionist also suffers in this way. Dévotion projects the fine body, which is seized and vampirized by the démon masquerading as “Christ” or “Mary”, or whoever may be the object of worship. Complété absence of ail power to concentrate thought, to follow an argument, to formulate a Will, to hold fast to an opinion or a course of action, or even to keep a solemn oath, mark indelibly those who hâve thus lost parts of their soûls. They wander from one new cuit to another even crazier. Occasionally such persons drift for a moment into the surroundmgs of The Master Therion, and are shot out by the simple process of making them try to do a half-hour5s honest work of any kind. In projecting the Astral, it is a valtiable additional safe- gnard to perform the whole operation m a properïy con- secrated circle. Proceed with great caution, then, but proceed. In time your Body of Light will be as strong against the spirits as your other body against the winds of Heaven. Ail dépends upon the develop¬ ment of that Body of Light. It must be furnished with an organism as ramified and balanced as its shadowy brother, the material body. To recapitulate once more, then, the first task is to develop your own Body of Light within your own circle with out reference to any other inhabitants of the world to which it belongs. That which you hâve accomplished with the subject you may now proceed to do with the object. You will learn to see the astral appearance of material thingSj and although this does not properïy belong to pure clairvoyance, one may here again mention that you should endeavour to the utmost to develop and forîify this Body of Light. The hest and simpîest way to do this is to use it constantly, to exercise it in every way. In particular it may be employed in ceremonies of initiation or of invocation — wrhile the physical body remains silent and still. In doing this it will often be necessary to create a Temple on the astral plane. Il is excellent practice to create symbols. This one précaution is needed: after using them, they should be reabsorbed. 148