Magick Without Tears

NECROMANCY AND SPIRITISM 179 Apollonius. You had better read them over again, to have the matter clear and fresh in your mind. Now then, let me call your attention to the extreme care which Levi took to construct a proper Magical Link between himself and the Ancient Master. Alas! It was rather a case of building with bricks made without straw; he had not at his command any fresh and vital object pertaining intimately to Apollonius. A "relic" would have been immensely helpful, especially if it had been consecrated and re-consecrated through the centuries by devout veneration. This, incidentally, is the great advantage that one may often obtain when invoking Gods; their images, constantly revered, nourished by continual sacrifice, serve as a receptacle for the Prana driven into them by thousands or millions of worshippers. In fact , such idols are often already consecrated talismans; and their possession and daily use is at least two-thirds of the battle. Apollonius was indeed as refractory a subject as Levi could possibly have chosen. All the cards were against him. Why? Let me remind you of the sublimity of the man's genius, and the extent of his attainment. Apollonius must certainly have made the closest links between his Ruach and his Supernal Triad, and this would have gone seeking a new incarnation elsewhere. All the available Ruach left floating around in the Akasha must have been comparatively worthless odds and ends, true QIiphoth or "Shells of the Dead" -just those parts of him, in a word, which Apollonius would have deliberately discarded at his death. So what use would they be to Levi? Even if there were among them a few such elements as would serve his purpose, they would have been devitalized and frittered away by the mere lapse of the centuries, since they had lost connection with the reality of the Sage. Alternatively, they might have been caught up and adopted by some wandering Entity, quite probably some malignant demon.