Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

especial piece of knowledge which he has reason to believe died with some teacher of the past, it may be useful to evoke the “shade” of such a one, or read the “Akasic record” of his mind. 1 If this be done it must be done properly very much on the lines of the évocation of Apollonius of Tyana, which Eliphaz Levi performed. 2 The utmost care must be taken to prevent personation of the “shade”. It is of course easy, but can rarely be advisable, to evoke the shade of a suicide, or of one violently slain or suddenly dead. Of what use is such an operation, save to gratify curiosity or vanity ? One must add a Word on spiritism, which is a sort of indiscrimi- nate necromancy — one might prefer the word necrophilia — by amateurs. They make themselves perfectly passive, and, so far from employing any methods of protection, deliberately invite ail and sundrv spirits, démons, shells of the dead, ail the excre- ment and filth of earth and hell, to squirt their slime over them. This invitation is readily accepted, unless a clean man be présent with an aura good enough to frighten these foui denizens of the pit. No spiritualistic manifestation has ever taken place in the 1. The only minds likeîy to be useful to the Magician belong to Adepts sworn to suffer reincarnation at short intervals, and the best éléments of such minds are bound up in the “Unconscious Self” of the Adept, not left to wandei idly about the Astral Plane. It will thus be more profitable to try to get into touch with the “Dead Teacher” in his présent avatar. Moreover, Adepts are at pains to record their teachings in books, monu¬ ments, or pictures, and to appoint spiritual guardians to preserve such heirlooms throughout the générations. Whenever these are destroyed or lost, the reason usually is that the Adept himself judges that their usefulness is over, and withdraws the forces which protected them. The student is therefore advised to acquiesce; the sources of information available for him aie probably selected by the Wardens of Mankind with a view to his real necessities. One must learn to trust one’s Holy Guardian Angel to shape one’s circumstances with skill. If one be but absorbed in the ardour of one’s aspiration toward Him, short indeed is the time before Expérience instils the certain conviction that His Works and His ways are inhnitely apt to one’s needs. 2. See Rituel et Dogme de la Haute Magie; Rituel, ch. XIII.