22
Meditation is not within the reach of every one ; not
all possess the ability; very few indeed (in the west at
least) have’ the opportunity,
In any case what the Easterns call “one-pointedness””
is an essential preliminary to even early stages of true
meditation. And iron will-power is a still earlier qualifi-
cation.
By meditation I do not mean merely “thinking about”
anything, however profoundly, but the absolute restraint
of the mind to the contemplation of a single object,
whether gross, fine, or altogether spiritual.
Now true magical ceremonial is entirely directed to
attain this end, and forms a magnificent gymnasium for
those who are not already finished mental athletes. By
act, word, and thought, both in quantity and quality, the
one object of the ceremony is being constantly indicated.
Every fumigation, purification, banishing, invocation,
evocation, is chiefly a reminder of the single purpose,
until the supreme moment arrives and every fibre of the
body, every force-channel of the mind, is strained out in
one. overwhelming rush of the Will in the direction
desired. Such is the real purport of all the apparently
fantastic directions of Solomon, Abramelin, and other
sages of repute. When a man has evoked and mastered
such forces as Taphtartarath, Belial, Amaimon, and the
great powers of the elements, then he may safely be
permitted to begin to try to stop thinking. For, needless
to say, the universe, including the thinker, exists only
by virtue of the thinker’s thought.