The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH word which we call a thought, seem to stand at a definite dis- tance in space behind the thought, the thought being farther from the perceiving soul. Looking at each glyph, one perceives, too, that itself is made up of other glyphs yet nearer to the Self, these glyphs, however, being formless and nameless; they are not truly perceived, but one is somehow aware of them. Unfortunately, the tendency to fall into effect (6) makes it very difficult to concentrate on the analysis of these ideas, so that one is hurried on to a similar examination of the next thought. It is curious, though, to notice how this analysis corresponds to the worlds of the Qabalah, the single ‘“ pure soul” at the back of all, the shadowy “creative” world, the varied “formative world,” and the single though concrete “ material ” world. It puzzles one, too (at the time, in the very course of the analysis), to ask: If the external simple impression be made up of so many glyphs, and each of these again of many more, how can one ever return to the “ pure soul”? For all the while one is clearly conscious of a simple Ego or “ pure soul” which perceives all this. The only solution appears to lie in a metaphysical identifi- cation of Monotheism and Pantheism. Again, one is conscious of a double direction in the phenomena. Not only is it true to say that the thoughts are analysed into glyphs and so on, back to the pure soul; but also that the pure soul sends forth the glyphs, which formulate the thought. Here again we must identify the Atman system of Hinduism centred in Ego with the Anatta system of Buddhism, in which the impressions are all. 43