Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 2)

the last chapter is to familiarise the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it, to transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will. u2. Let him then begin exactly as before; but with the most intense solemnitv and détermination. “3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise in a line exactly perpendicular to the earth’s tangent at the point where his physical body is situated (or, to put it more simply, straight upwards). “4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost overcomes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do so, and that figures appear, let him at ail costs rise above them. Yea, though his very life tremble on his lips, let him force his way upward and onward ! “5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him. Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and ail his hosts loosed from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very Throne of God himself that a voice issues bidding him stay and be content, let him struggle on, ever on. “6. At last there must corne a moment when his whole being is swallowed up in fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia. Let him sink (when no longer can he strive, though his tongue be bitten through with the effort and the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness ; and then on coming to himself, let him Write down soberly and accurately a record of ail that hath occurred : yea, a record of ail that hath occurred.” Of course, the Rising may be done from any starting point. One can go (for example) into the circle of Jupiter, and the results, especially in the lower planes, will be very different to those obtained from a Saturnian starting point. The student should undertake a regular) sériés of such experiments, in order to familiarise himself not only with the nature of the different spheres, but with the inner meaning of each. Of course, it is not necessary in every case to push the 154