THE EQUINOX
(Consult “ Goetia,” the “Key of Solomon,” Eliphaz
Levi, Cornelius Agrippa, Pietro di Abano, Barrett and others
for instructions.)
These forms are more solid and real, much more dange-
rous, and are excessively difficult to obtain. I have known
very few successful practitioners.
All these forms and names are almost infinitely varied.
The grosser visual and auditory phenomena of hashish belong
to the group. It is not just to suppose that a vision of a
Divine being of ineffable splendour is necessarily of higher
type than this shadowy form-world. Mistake on this point
has led many a student astray. Highest among these things
are the three visual and seven auditory phenomena of Yoga.
(We omit consideration of the other senses; the subject
requires a volume.) These are referred to the Sun, the Moon,
and Fire; and their appearance marks the attainment of
Dhyana. They are dazzling, and accompanied with such in-
tense though passionless bliss that they partake of the nature
of Vedana and may under certain conditions even rise to touch
Safifia. Of the auditory are sounds heard like bells, elephants,
thunder, trumpets, sea-shells, “the sweet-souled Vina,” and so
on; they are of less importance and are much more common.
As one would expect, such forms leave little impress upon
the memory. Yet they are seductive enough, and I am afraid
that the very great majority of mystics live all their lives
wandering about in this vain world of shadows and of shells.
All this, too, is the pleasant aspect of the affair. Here
belong the awful shapes of delirium and madness, which
obsess and destroy the soul that fails to control and dismiss
them. Here lives the Dweller of the Threshold, that concen-
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