The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH Sit down comfortably; it is perhaps best to begin in the dark. Imagine as strongly as possible your own figure standing in front of you. Transfer your consciousness to that figure, so that you look down upon your physical body in the chair. (This is usually the one difficulty.) Feeling perfectly at home in your imagined body, let that body rise through the air to a great height. Stop. Look around you. Probably the eyes of your ‘“‘astral” body will be closed. It is sometimes difficult to open them. You will then perceive all sorts of forms, varying as you travel about. Their nature will depend almost entirely on your power of control. Some people may even perceive the phantoms of delirium and madness, and truly go mad from fear and horror. Let the “astral” body return and sit down, coinciding with the physical body. Closely unite the two: the experiment is over. Practice makes perfect. This practice is delusive and even dangerous; it is best to precede and follow it by a carefully performed “ Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram.”* Better still, have a skilled teacher. The experiment is an easy one; with two pupils only (of some dozens) I have failed, and that completely; with the others the first experiment was a success. We must include, too, in this section the forms appearing in answer to the rites of ceremonial magic. * Mr. Haddo’s suggestions have been officially taken up and a book of careful instruction compiled. See Liber O.—ED. 61