The Equinox (Volume I, Number X)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES CHAPTER III MYSTERIES OF HALLUCINATIONS AND OF THE EVOCATION OF SPIRITS An hallucination is an illusion produced by an irregular movement of the astral light. It is, as we said previously, the admixture of the pheno- mena of sleep with those of waking. Our plastic medium breathes in and out the astral light or vital soul of the earth, as our body breathes in and out the terrestrial atmosphere. Now, just as in certain places the air is impure and not fit for breathing, in the same way, certain unusual circumstances may make the astral light unwholesome, and not assimilable. The air of some places may be too bracing for some people, and suit others perfectly; it is exactly the same with the magnetic light. The plastic medium is like a metallic statue always in a state of fusion. If the mould is defective, it becomes deformed ; if the mould breaks, it runs out. The mould of the plastic medium is balanced and polarized vital force. Our body, by means of the nervous system, attracts and retains this fugitive form of light; but local fatigue, or partial over-excitement of the apparatus, may occasion fluidic deformities. These deformities partially falsify the mirror of the imagi- nation, and thus occasion habitual hallucinations to the static type of visionary. The plastic medium, made in the image and likeness of our 127