The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING quickly enough the gross breaks, but lets the minor ones dart away from his grasp, like the small fry which with ease swim in and out of the fisherman’s net. Further, though in twelve meditations the number of breaks may be identical, yet the class of the breaks, much more so than the actual number, will tell the meditator, more certainly than anything else, whether he has progressed or has retrograded. Thus at first, should the meditator practise with his eyes open, the number of breaks will in their swift succession form almost one unbroken interruption. Again, should the eyes be closed, then the ears detecting the slightest sound, the flow of the will will be broken, just as the faintest zephyr, on a still evening, will throw out of the perpendicular an ascending column of smoke. But presently, as the will gains power, the sense of hearing, little by little, as it comes under control, is held back from hearing the lesser sounds, then the greater, and at length all sounds. The vibrations of the will having re- pelled the sound vibrations of the air, and brought the sense of hearing into Equilibrium. Now the upward mounting fila- ment of smoke has become the ascending columns of a great volcano, there is a titanic blast behind it,—a will to ascend. And as the smoke and flame is belched forth, so terrific is its strength, that even a hurricane cannot shake it or drive it from its course. As the five senses become subdued, fresh hosts of diffi- culties spring up irrationally from the brain itself. And, whichever way we turn, a mob of subconscious thoughts pull us this way and that, and our plight in this truculent multi- tude is a hundred times worse than when we commenced to wrestle with the five senses. Like wandering comets and 185