The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING in the body to protect the thought-ray beyond the limits of the Sphere of Sensations (as well as the Sphere itself at that point of departure of the thought-ray) from attack by any hostile force, so that the Consciousness in this Projection is not quite so strong as the consciousness when concentrated in the natural body in ordinary life. ‘The return taketh place by a reversal of this process; and, save to persons whose Nephesch and physical body are exceptionally strong and healthy, the whole operation of “ skrying” and travelling in the Spirit Vision is, of course, fatiguing. Also there is another mode of Astral Projection, which can be used by the more practised and advanced Adept. This consisteth in forming first a Sphere from his own Sphere of Sensations, casting his reflection therein, and then projecting this whole Sphere to the desired place as in the previous method, But this is not easy to be done by any but the practised operator.” In fact if this projection of the Sphere to the desired place can be carried out successfully, the highest illumination may be obtained thereby, supposing the desired place to be God or Kether. To a beginner this particular method of Attainment will appear very vague and unbalanced, for his astral journeys will consist of a chain of alarms and surprises; and the reason for this is that in almost every case he sets out with no clear idea of the place he is struggling to journey to, or the route he has chosen to adopt. He is like an explorer who sets out on a journey of discovery ; the further he travels from his own native land, the more strange and uncommon do the lands appear to him through which he is journeying. Little by little the language of his country changes, melting as it were into another not unlike it but yet different; this in time also changes, and so by degrees do all his surroundings, until he finds himself in a strange country, as different from the one from which he started as an equatorial forest is from the the ice-incrusted lands of the Pole. Sometimes the change of scenery is slight, sometimes vast, 323